


Acronym

by Camelabrakedabra



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, Homophobia, M/M, Other Relationships Are Really Minor, Slurs, Suggestive Themes, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 04:31:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 40,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10153712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Camelabrakedabra/pseuds/Camelabrakedabra
Summary: Seungcheol had made the mistake of picking the friends who spat homophobic slurs at Jeonghan and the other LGBT students. Yet, they had been his friends for years, and his best quality was his loyalty, so there was no way that he could just drop them on the spot like that.Besides, leaving them was going to be a tricky task when he was already trying to cover up his own blatent bisexuality, and they had the ammo to take him down if they wanted to.





	1. A for Ally

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is basically going to be a set of short chapters, each at no more than 1500 words, to get me over the slight writers' block that's threatening to take over now that my mind is swimming with several different fic ideas. I can't concentrate on one thing at once, but also struggle to concentrate on several things, so I guess we'll see how this one turns out, and whether or not it actually helps.
> 
> A lot of the details will probably end up being implicit, so please feel free to fill in the gaps with your own ideas where it happens.
> 
> (Also as a side note, I'm aware that in the LGBT+ acronym, A is for "asexual/agender" and not "ally" but it's not alwyas going to follow the exact same title theme.)
> 
> As always, please leave feedback and ways to improve if you find them! Thank you for reading!

LGBT.

The acronym didn't really mean all that much to Choi Seungcheol.

It was just one of those things that he didn't directly support, but didn't reject either. He wasn't going to go out of his way to actively look for ways to help people he didn't know when it didn't make all that much different to his life, but likewise he wasn't going to be harsh to people either, since their sexuality and gender identity wasn't a logical measure of worth, in his opinion. He was passive, if anything, to the idea of LGBT people and his daily interactions with them.

On the contrary, his friends were not.

He had quite unfortunately chosen to lump himself with the jock kids back when they were in middle school, since he had been big on martial arts and football in particular, and simply stuck with them for the past five or six years now since that was the easiest option out there.

They weren't the most tolerable group. Again, he personally wasn't all that bothered by LGBT people, but his friends were more than a little harsh sometimes. Yet, of course, Seungcheol wasn't prepared to call them out on it, since it was none of his business after all. 

No, it was the constant need to prove masculinity that was an issue for him. It was the main thing that made him question his identity as part of the group on more than one occasion. It was about always trying to flaunt their manliness; brawling, rough play, muscle building, protein shakes, girls. It wasn't something that he was particularly interested in, if he was completely honest. Rough housing wasn't exactly his favourite thing to do, with his martial arts background, he didn't really care so much if his muscles were big, and girls were off the table for the moment. There was no way that he could handle a relationship with a girl whilst he was trying to get into a decent university.

Seungcheol had spent a peaceful break away from the group between their second and third year of high school, and frankly going back was incredibly difficult. He hadn't wanted to pull himself out of bed, but of course, his father had forced him out of bed as early as possible so that he couldn't even try the excuse of oversleeping, forgetting something, or the sorts. After all, once the first week of the year was over, he would end up having to be in school between five in the morning and ten at night to study, so this served as a bit of preparation if nothing else. He would put on a grin when he saw the the group, making it as believeable as physically possible, since he didn't quite want them to know that he wasn't really prepared to spend a lot of time with them this year. As much as he used to love spending time after school trying out new sports, this was his year to completely knuckle down and get the best grades possible. 

Perhaps he would mention it at some point in the future, that he was trying to get into one of the top universities for one of three subjects, and he honestly needed some space to study and bump his grades up. They weren't too bad at the moment, but there was some obvious room for improvement, and maybe they would be prepared to take that into consideration.

They had met for the first time that school year in their home room, and he had made a point of making polite conversation with them as if he genuinely wanted to talk about what they had done over the break, or their plans for the first weekend of term. Surprisingly, within the first five minutes of conversation, they had established that at least four of them were being forced by their parents to take _hagwon_ classes in preparation for their exams, and a further three were doing so willingly. It instantly took the stress of having to explain himself away, since it seemed that some of them were planning on trying for SKY universities too, and Seungcheol was happy to see that it was something that had essentially been agreed within the group. Decidedly, they seemed to have all matured a lot over the break and it was great to see.

_Or perhaps not._

The mature discussion about university and future aspirations would only last as long as Yoon Jeonghan wasn't there, it seemed. As soon as he took one step into the room, the group had instantly gone silent and simultaneously snapped around to watch him enter. It was as if they all had a siren in their heads that would sound as soon as he was within a certain distance of them. Seungcheol knew exactly what was coming up, and so kept his head down.

Jeonghan was the main target for their petty comments. Although he claimed to be straight himself, Jeonghan wasn't the most masculine in appearance, and was particularly big on fighting for the younger kids. The comments weren't exactly what Seungcheol liked to hear, but so far in their academic lives it seemed to be an inevitable conflict. Jocks versus LGBT. It wouldn't be too bad if the group leader wasn't quick to fire back when under attack, but it was such a common occurence that there were fights almost every week in the first two years of high school.

_"What did you get up to over the break, Yoon? Sucking dick?"_

There it was. Seungcheol didn't dare to look up from his desk for a solid minute, just to make sure that there wasn't going to be a fight that he was going to be dragged into due to the power of association, but a quick glance upwards once enough time had passed showed that their classmate had completely ignored the remark, and had instead chosen to start reading a book, with both headphones in just to show that he wasn't listening to anything that they had to say about him.

Apparently _he_ had changed too; not just mentally in the way that he wasn't prepared to get upset over some petty individual making cruel remarks, but physically too. His hair was just getting to shoulder length now and was a sort of copper colour, in comparison to the shaggy black hair that he had been sporting before the end of the academic year. It had either grown quickly over the past month or so, or he had straightened his hair that morning, but it suited him particularly well. He had also lost some weight, not that he had much to start with, and held himself with a confidence that had clearly been founded over the past few weeks.

They had known each other for a few years now, but this look on Jeonghan was completely different to everything he had presented himself as in the past.

_"I bet you were Jisoo's dick sleeve over the break, huh?"_

It seemed that despite his headphones being in, Jeonghan wasn't actually playing music, as his head slowly turned in their direction, and his eyes narrowed when he heard some of the boys laughing. His eyes had also locked on Seungcheol's for a moment and induced the most incredible fear into him despite him knowing that he had personally done nothing wrong. One swift movement lifted him from his seat, and he was quick to stride over to their desks with a faked sweet smile that suggested that he was in no mood for that sort of behaviour this year.

"I'd just like you all to know that whilst I'm well aware that we're all supposed to be studying hard for our exams, I also won't be dealing with childish behaviour this year. If you wish to make this into a big deal, so be it, but I'd rather not have this petty conflict when I'm trying to look out for my future primarily. I promise you, though, if you hurt any of the boys under my wing, I won't be holding back." His voice was calm, but his attitude was evident in his words. There was an unusual bitterness in his tone, one that was rarely seen, but he hid it well between a calm and logical explanation. It was something that Seungcheol had always admired from him, and had always wished to adopt into his own personality, if he could find something that he was as passionate about as his community.

Jeonghan had turned to walk away, only to be followed back to his seat by a string of slurs, and it was at that point that Seungcheol realised that whilst this year may see less messing with sports and girls, it was almost certainly going to end up with more conflicts with the LGBT kids now that Yoon Jeonghan had built up his confidence to these new levels over a few weeks.


	2. B for Bisexual

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's to another chapter!
> 
> Just to confirm, I don't really have a plan for where this is going, other than a few little signposts on the way, so if you do have any suggestions or ideas, please feel free to message or comment, since I'd be really excited to add in little bits for you all.
> 
> Thank you for reading!!

It was inevitable that someone in their own group would end up coming out eventually. There was always one LGBT kid hidden in the group of homophobes, and if he was completely honest, Seungcheol was glad that his friend had managed to escape the group before everything had officially kicked off for the year. Once the conflict started, there was nothing that the kid would be able to do to stop himself from being torn between the two groups otherwise.

Chwe Hansol had been running late on the first day of the academic year, and so hadn't seen the clashing between his friends and Jeonghan. He had hurried into the room with a mumbled apology and a sort of discomfort in his expression, whilst simultaneously going out of his way to avoid making eye contact with anyone. It was probably for the best that he had turned up late, really, since he seemed to have become significantly more withdrawn over the first few days of term, and the last thing he probably wanted to have to deal with was the conflict that was going on around him.

As with everyone else in the group, he wasn't around all too much after classes, in favour of doing specific university preparation classes. In fact, the most contact that he had had with other students was when he met after Wednesday's classes with Boo Seungkwan from Jeonghan's group, for what they described quite vaguely as a "paired study project". It wasn't really something that they were given this early on in the year without a reasonable notice period, but arguably Hansol had opted in to take some classes that no one else in the group was attending, so perhaps it was something that had been arranged in order to help them with some of the more complex subjects. They had both seemed anxious when they saw each other, despite the fact that they had their story straight on why they needed to hurry off so quickly, but had tried to put on a front around everyone else, as if they were trying to convince themselves of it too.

By Friday, he had officially come out. It was posted in the early hours of the morning in their group chat, along with a note on his decision to join the LGBT kids. It was for the best, he had decided; he didn't want to make anyone else feel uncomfortable over who he was in love with, or to ruin their fun by making them think about how their words made him feel. He was bisexual, dating Seungkwan, and a lot happier now that he had come to terms with it all.

Apparently they had been together for six months already but kept it incredibly well hidden, and it was getting to the point where Seungkwan was insistent that they shouldn't hide their relationship this year. Not even his own friends were aware of their relationship until Hansol had officially come out, although it was probably decided between them in order to avoid intergroup conflicts. After all, the LGBT kids may have been in support of his relationship in general, but sure as hell some of them wouldn't be all too impressed if they found out that one of their own was dating one of the jocks. It was a smart move to keep it on the downlow until he had made his transition over to their group; almost like a modern day version of Romeo and Juliet.

It was no wonder, after four years of being friends with Hansol, that the jocks weren't particularly caring about it all. They weren't as harsh to him as they were to the other LGBT kids, probably because they had come to know him over the years and knew that he wouldn't really pose any threat, but likewise they did choose to ignore him as much as possible. Even Seungkwan was left alone now, since they were unsure of whether Hansol would be ready to fight against them for his boyfriend to feel safe. He was generally shy in front of people but had a bite when he needed to, and this was the sort of situation that would probably bring that out of him.

The first and last direct interaction with him was during lunch in their second week of the semester. The jocks weren't going out of their way to cause problems initially, but of course they couldn't keep their mouthes shut when they saw a delicate moment between their old friend and his partner. 

Whilst it wouldn't have been all too bad if they had exchanged it between those in the group only, there was something about them that resulted in an inevitable loudness in everything they did. One made exaggerated heaving noises as soon as the two made contact, whilst another spewed an unnecessary comment about how they were trying to force their homosexuality onto all of the 'normal' people in the room. The comments had made Hansol jump, as he had never really expected to hear those sorts of things directed towards himself, and his eyes genuinely reflected true hurt from it. They had made a point of leaving the room immediately to avoid conflict, but in the process bumped into Jeonghan, who was returning to the classroom with his lunchbox in tow.

Naturally, the group mum friend was bound to see the upset in Hansol's eyes, as much as he tried to hide it. He had quietly questioned it so that no one in the classroom could hear the conversation properly, repeating back the information that he had been told, then finally sending the boys on their way once he was sure that he had the story straight.

They were prepared for the conflict, but not quite for a confrontation as such.

He had that sense of calmness about him as he approached the jock group, who had instantly gone quiet out of pure curiosity over what was coming up next. It was that self confidence coming out again, it seemed. Now that all eyes were on him and there were no smart comments from anyone, he took his time in clearing his throat and looking from person to person, just to show that he had the power in the conversation. Seungcheol was completely captivated by how the light hit Jeonghan's face in a way that made him seem superior to them all, alongside the way that he knew he was in a position where they wouldn't dare to try to speak over him.

"You all disgust me. Every single one of you." It was in his tone of voice as well as his words. They could feel every single syllable that passed his lips, and it honestly felt as if he was a godly being who had come to punish them for their wrongdoings. "I can't believe that you would all be so cruel as to inflict such hurt onto someone you used to all care a lot about. Call the rest of us slurs as much as you want, but you've hit a new low when you attack one of your own."

The shock must have been obvious from Seungcheol's expression, because Jeonghan's hands pressed down on the desk in front of him. Not firmly enough to result in a loud noise, but instead to show off the physical power that complimented his mental power perfectly. Their eyes locked, and he could see the burning in the other boy's eyes as they stared each other down. His voice was a lot deeper when he spoke up again, and the huskiness of his tone left shivers running down Seungcheol's spine. "Don't dare give me that look, Choi Seungcheol. You might not take an active part in this, but you're an enabler. If you truly cared for your friend, you would call these assholes out for what they're doing to him."

Jeonghan was looking down at him as if he was dirt. They had spent a lot of time together in their classes and seemed to get on particularly well overall, so this disappointment was something that he hadn't ever personally experienced from the other boy. Their eyes remained locked as he turned to walk away again, and contact only ceased once he was far enough away to comfortably turn his back without fear of being hit with something. Held breaths were released into the thick air of the classroom as soon as he was gone; it appeared that everyone in the group had simultaneously felt the pure disappointment of their classmate to a degree where there was a genuine fear for a short period of time. 

A quick glance over towards him here and there showed that the pissed off attitude continued throughout the rest of their lunch break, and trickled into their first class of the afternoon too.

Never had Seungcheol felt so disappoined in himself than when he was confronted for his behaviour, or rather, his lack of it.


	3. C for Contrivance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this one has taken a few days to get sorted; this writers' block is getting rather intense, and exams at university didn't really help with the situation!
> 
> Hopefully others will come along soon, though; I don't have another deadline for a few weeks, and at the very least, I probably have enough to write for D, E, F, J and K, even if the others have no prompts just yet.
> 
> As always, if there's anything that comes up, please feel free to let me know and I'll do what I can with it!  
> Hope you enjoy, and thank you for reading!

The more he thought about Jeonghan's words, the worse he felt about it all.

The last thing he wanted to be was an enabler, and up until that point he hadn't really considered it like that, but all in all, it was undeniable that it was the truth. He had had numerous occasions in which he could have stopped it, but he had always sat back and kept himself out of the way. If he was really their friend, he would mention something, but likewise if he was genuinely prepared to support Hansol, he should take an active role in ensuring that the group wasn't making the LGBT kids' lives hell. It wasn't going to change otherwise, and Seungcheol knew that.

Yet, other than that incident, there didn't seem to be any bad blood between the two of them. He had offered Jeonghan a pen in their hagwon English class, after his own ran out of ink, and Jeonghan had been incredibly appreciative of it. When they were asked to make sentences using the list of words that they were struggling with, not only was he incredibly involved in the discussion, but also spoke to him afterwards to ask about pronunciation and word order. He had even offered a proud little smile when congratulated for finally saying the word 'whispering' correctly after a solid eight attmepts. Whilst it wasn't at all a personal conversation, he could tell from Jeonghan's mannerisms that he was okay with them chatting for the most part.

It was the last class for the evening, finishing at around ten o'clock, and Seungcheol wasn't in any particular rush to leave. After all, he didn't live too far away from the school, and was getting top grades in most of Wednesday's early morning classes anyway, so he was planning on spending that extra few hours in bed and doing work at home. He had stopped behind after class in order to help their teacher put everything away and gather her belongings, before heading out of the room.

Of course, he was completely unsuspecting of the fact that Jeonghan was waiting outside of the classroom for him, and so pulled what was probably one of the most embarrassing, awkward faces possible when he felt a hand grab for his wrist, and a sudden tug that flipped him against the wall. The hand stayed where it was, whilst another moved to the wall by his head to pin him there. He stood frozen for a second with what he was certain was a look of fear on his face, as he tried to figure out exactly what had happened. Usually he wasn't this slow, but he was quite frankly exhausted and caught off guard, and so took a few seconds to determine who had flipped him. Apparently Jeonghan had found the string of awkward expressions amusing, as the seriousness dropped from his face for a fraction of a second, but he quickly composed himself before he started speaking.

"We don't really have much time here, so I'm going to skip straight to the point. I've seen how you treat other people, and I don't think you're as bad as being part of that group makes you out to be. If I'm honest, I'm worried about the effects it'll have on your mental health in the long run. If I offered to give you full support and look after you in the long run, would you leave them?" He was calmer than Seungcheol had seen over the past few weeks. It was rather refreshing to see him as the guy he remembered from the past few years at school, from before everything kicked off between their groups. 

Seungcheol studied his face for a while, taking in the way that some of his hair was falling over his cheek, and how the dimmed lights in the hallway left his pupils dilated and curious-looking. He watched the way that Jeonghan's lips weren't pursed how they had been during their daily encounters this year so far, but were instead soft and full and gently pressed together. He swallowed in anticipation for the reply to his question, and his Adam's apple bobbed a little in the process. This calm, caring side was what he was used to seeing over the past few years, and honestly it suited him a lot better. 

If anything, though, that made the rejection a lot harder.

He took a deep breath as he ran a hand through his hair. "Look, I... I just can't do that right now. They have things against me, and I'd rather not hit a bad spot with them." Jeonghan had tried to push it a little to find out what exactly was preventing him from leaving, but that was something that Seungcheol definitely wasn't ready to get into. It was a messy situation to say the least, and it was definitely something that he was willing to take to the grave with him if necessary.

"Okay, I appreciate that you're not ready for that, but what if I was to help you get through it? You can do it on your own terms, but I don't want you being in a bad situation because of them."  
"I don't know how it'd work, but I suppose if there's a way, I might consider it." The corners of Jeonghan's lips twitched into a smile as he leant more of his weight onto the hand that was pressed against the wall.  
"Good. Now, I'll think up some possible ideas over the next few days and get back to you, if that's okay."

He was glad to have the option, if nothing else. It seemed as if it was genuine and completely on his terms, which was well appreciated, yet he didn't really have to do too much work to get there. Although he wasn't all too happy with having to dump the planning onto Jeonghan, he seemed to be rather excited to actually start planning this, which was nice to see. It definitely took the stress off Seungcheol's mind for the most part, and that worked rather well in his favour since he was well aware of the fact that every failed option that he came up with would serve as a reason to discontinue rather than to come up with further options.

Yet, he was still mildly concerned over how they could adapt to his issue. He figured that if he couldn't tell Jeonghan what the actual problem was, they probably wouldn't be able to figure out an alternative to use, but likewise, he was sure that Jeonghan would have something to say about it if he was to find out what it was. It wasn't even that he was worried about being perceived as gay for joining the group; he could deal with that, since it wasn't really anything insulting in his opinion. It was other, unnameable things that were causing the issues. Every time he thought about them, his stomach would lurch, and that was enough to put him off leaving the group unless Jeonghan was to come up with an absolutely outstanding way to lure him away.

Of course, though, that was incredibly unlikely to happen, and so he was simply ready to accept that he was going to be staying in the group. Hopefully a few failed attempts would discourage the other boy, too, and thus prevent an excessive amount of wasted effort.

"Seungcheol?" They both snapped around, and Seungcheol honestly wished that he could be swallowed up by the ground in that moment. His friends were on the way over, equipped with shit-eating smirks. They'd found him in a compromising situation, and despite the fact that it definitely wasn't what they thought it was, he knew that he would be hearing about it for days later.  
"So, we're doing the project on literature in English, then? That's fine; I'll get a list of popular books that we can perhaps look at, ready for tomorrow's class." It took a few seconds for Seungcheol to realise what was happening again, but the insistence in Jeonghan's expression seemed to show that he was trying to spare the awkwardness from the group. He cleared his throat, before giving space so that the older boy could move again.

Seungcheol flashed him an apologetic glance as he left with the group, and a look of understanding was returned.

"You're in a group with gay boy then? Aren't you worried that he's gonna try to turn you?"  
"There's nothing to say that he's gay; he just supports the LGBT kids." Perhaps he had snapped it a bit too quickly, as his comment was followed up by a few whistles from his friends.  
"You're defending him now! Does this mean it's already too late to save you?"

Seungcheol playfully pushed the other boy, but still dared another look back at Jeonghan, who was stood watching him leave with a strangely thoughtful expression, in comparison to his usual look of disappointment.


	4. D for Dynamic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that I've found a way to motivate myself to write more, we're going to be on a little bit of a roll, popping out chapters where we can!!
> 
> Thank you for all of the kind comments and words of encouragement so far; it's really motivating to read how everyone feels about each chapter
> 
> As always, please let me know if there's anything to add or change <3

"Here it is!" Jeonghan pressed the folder onto the table a bit too hard, so that the plastic made a loud slapping noise as it hit the table. A few students turned glaring eyes towards them to see why it was necessary to slam it. "I made several plans just in case the first one fell through. Take a moment to read through them. You're welcome."

Before Seungcheol could say another word, he flashed that sweet smile and made his way over to his desk to sit down. He was proud of himself to say the very least, and he had really taken it upon himself to come up with a variety of potential ways to leave. Granted, the chances of any of them working when Jeonghan was unaware of the circumstances was slim, but perhaps it would help him to come up with his own ideas as to how to deal with his problem. After all, it wasn't just something little that he could brush off without a second thought if better opportunities came up in other groups.

He opened the folder to take a look at his options.

_Plan 1: Join Us  
They heard about our fake group project, so you can come to sit with us at lunch, breaks, and before and after classes. Say that it's so that we can work on the assignment, since it's really important to both of us that we get the grades. Since they need their grades, too, they'll understand. Gradually fade out of their group._

It seemed like a relatively solid plan, but it quite frankly wasn't going to work. The jocks weren't stupid in the slightest. They probably believed everything about the English project at the time, since that was plausible, but at the same time, they had counless other subjects to be balancing out, so making this assignment his priority made no sense when the main group hated Jeonghan more than anything.

_Plan 2: Start an Argument  
I'm sure you get irritable sometimes over some of the things they do. Find someone to bicker with, say you need space away from the group, then never go back. Simple but effective, could work out if there's a lot of things said that annoy you._

Big 'no' to that one. It wasn't possible in the slightest. Seungcheol just didn't argue with anyone, and even if he did take it personally, there was still a chance that they would reveal his secret. Less of a chance than if he was to straight up tell them that he was leaving to join the LGBT kids, but still a risk that he wasn't willing to take. If they thought that it was their fault, then it could work out a bit, but there was no chance of that being the case when he wasn't the sort to start arguments. Wasn't that the whole reason why he was struggling to leave anyway?

_Plan 3: Get close to Hansol  
You were already close friends beforehand, if I remember correctly. Perhaps you should try to talk to him a lot more and tell him about your desire to leave the group, then continue getting more and more friendly until eventually you're spending a lot of time together and it just seems natural for you to leave._

Of all of the plans so far, that one could work out okay. Maybe even a mix of the first and third; talking to Hansol a bit more as a result of having to spend time with Jeonghan for their project, then gradually fading out of the jock group. It still had some risks, but it was probably less risky to involve an already existing friend than it was to simply join the group that his old friends hated more than anything.

As he went to turn the page, he heard a call of his name come from the door to the classroom, and quickly snapped it shut before stuffing the folder into his bag. He was rather relieved that they hadn't snuck up on him, as they had done several times over the past few years in order to catch him in unexplainable, compromising siutations, especially as it gave him a few seconds to fake his smile and invite them to come over. Apparently Jeonghan had tuned in to hear it, too, as his head slowly turned towards Seungcheol, and he offered a questioning look, presumably over the contents of the folder. He silently mouthed to him to ask what number seemed like the best one so far.

Seungcheol turned away to face the friend who had pulled a seat up next to his, but in the process, made sure to press one finger to the cheek closest to Jeonghan, waited for just long enough for him to register the code, then switched to press three instead. A glance in his direction suggested that he had understood, as he gave a knowing smile, and he turned back towards his book without another word. The subtle gestures had seemingly gone unnoticed with the other jock, as he continued to ramble about how much he hated his early morning classes, whilst Seungcheol pretended to have paid attention from the start by inserting well-timed questions about the classes that the other boy had mentioned taking.

Lunch couldn't have come any sooner that day. Seungcheol hadn't even been up that early, in comparison to the vast majority of his classmates, but the four hours between getting to school and finally being dismissed honestly felt more like four years. He had set it up gradually during the day by whining over having been paired with Jeonghan of all people, as much as he hated to seem as if he was agreeing with their blatent dislike for him, it was working in his favour, as they were empathising with him for having to spend lunch with the LGBT group. By the time it came to the end of their final morning class, the jocks were actually wishing him good luck for the following hour, and Seungcheol couldn't be more thrilled about it.

Jeonghan had also managed to perfect the art of acting, as he had overheard little snippets of conversation between the group. Seungcheol had made sure of it, and had also occasionally flashed him the slightest of smiles to show that it was part of the plan and not just some attempt to throw him under the bus. Once the class was over, he emphasised the exasperated sigh as he made his way over to the older boy's desk and placed his hand down on the edge. "I suppose we should probably go to lunch, then. The group is sitting on the roof today. If you can hurry and pack your belongings, I'll be happy to take you there."

Perfection. His friends had made a point of ignoring Jeonghan the whole time, and his disinterested expression was more convincing than Seungcheol could have possibly imagined. He had stuffed everything into his bag as quickly as possible, before rising from his seat and dismissing himself from the group, making sure to give one final glance back as they left the room to check their expressions for any signs to suggest that they weren't buying his excuse.

Of course, there was none, and the plan had set off smoothly.

For a first trial, it was great. Jeonghan had proudly introduced him to everyone in the group, and made a point of giving a little distinguishing feature for each person in order to help him to remember them. Firstly, there was Jisoo, the eternally single religious one. Then Junhui, the child actor. Soonyoung, the one whose smile could make gardens blossom. Wonwoo, the shy but really pretty one. Jihoon, the one who could still pass as a middle school student, and Seokmin, the energetic one. Mingyu, the designated dork; Minghao, the one who was simultaneously a cinnamon roll and a _sinnamon_ roll; Seungkwan, the embodiment of sass. He was already familiar with Hansol, although he wasn't excluded from the introductions, then finally Chan, the baby of the group.

Each greeted him with smiles, even the ones who had seemed to be mildly uncomfortable when he was first there. It was heartwarming, if nothing else, to have everyone accept him so quickly, considering how he had been a part of the group that had made their lives hell for years. They were genuinely nice people, who were a lot more open minded than the jocks had ever been, and some were even offering to share some of their food with him.

Then there was Hansol. The light that had been snatched away every time their old group made a homophobic joke was back for good; his cheeks grew plump and his eyes crinkled every time he smiled, and honestly he was smiling an awful lot now. Pure and genuine happiness now that he felt safe.

Seungcheol never wanted to leave now that he had found them.


	5. E for Excuses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in less than twelve hours - we're on a bit of a roll today!!
> 
> It's to the point of subtle hinting about Seungcheol's past; bonus points to anyone who can guess it before that chapter is released
> 
> Hope you enjoy, and as always, please message with any problems!! <3

Gradually, the longer he spent with the LGBT kids, the more positive he was starting to feel. For Seungcheol, this was the light at the end of the tunnel; the happiness starting to shine through as he became more and more used to them. He was quickly starting to get to know them by name, and was also getting used to the array of different personalities. It was refreshing to be able to meet the new people and learn as much as he was learning from them. He had grown particularly attached to a few of them so far, and it was nice to be able to have that after feeling disconnected for so long.

He had been an unofficial member of their group for almost three weeks now, and had adjusted well. No one had brought up the jocks to date; not that he had really expected them to, if he was honest, since they were polar opposites of each other. One was hateful and bitter, whilst the other was loving and warm. Seungcheol had made his decision to find a way to stay, provided that there was no risk to his secret. He had hoped more than anything in the world that the jocks had forgotten about it, but chances were, they still had a relatively large amount of blackmail material that they could use against him. As a result, he hadn't completely neglected them during the day, and occasionally took time away from the LGBT kids in order to make it up to the jocks a bit. One day here and there, with the excuse that the project was taking up an uncomfortable amount of his time, and the only thing that was getting him through it was talking to Hansol over lunch.

The jocks had simply accepted that it was a given; Seungcheol wasn't prepared to forfeit his grade, even if it meant hanging around a group that he supposedly loathed, and they seemed to be relatively understanding about that part.

It was the after school meetings that were starting to cause issues, though.

Perhaps he had gotten sloppy with his excuses for knowing everyone in the group. It had started out with him getting to know their names by being around them enough to gradually pick up on it, but nowadays they were meeting himself and Jeonghan after classes, both for lunch and after school, and each time Seungcheol barely caught himself before he smiled too warmly in their direction and made it obvious. It was getting to the point where even he was picking up on his own blatent lack of subtlety, but he couldn't really do all that much to hide the genuine happiness that the boys brought to him. He felt like a proud father of the group already, since they were all almost close enough to be a family before he joined. They shared everything with each other, including support, which served as a great atmosphere.

Of course, though, others weren't all too happy with how easily he was fitting into the group. The leader of the jocks in particular seemed to loathe the idea of another one of their own going over to their enemy group, and he had made his feelings about it very clear after the first week of Seungcheol's daily lunches with them. Yet, it was just subtle digs here and there until the end of the first month was drawing near, marking the point where he was going to start being a lot more explicit about his feelings.

He had cornered him after one of the classes, and although they had been going to school together for many years, Seungcheol immediately felt his heart thudding hard in his chest when he was prevented from leaving the room. He knew from the way that the larger frame wedged between the wall and door that he wasn't going to be getting out of this conversation easily. "Go and sit on that chair over there," he older boy had instructed, and he had done so without any argument or questioning. There was no room for it at the moment, and the leader had made it incredibly clear. He followed Seungcheol into the room, then sat down at the desk to his right.

Something was off. Dark brown eyes bore into Seungcheol's skull as he tried to avoid the gaze of the older boy. It mimicked a situation in which a young child was caught having done something that required punishment, with the leader acting as a scolding parent. They were silent for a few minutes, as he tried to catch Seungcheol's eye, but when that didn't happen, he commanded the boy to look up at him. "Now, I see that you're spending every lunch with Yoon's group. Why is that?"

"I'm just working on the English project," he said simply, though the faultering in his tone probably gave him away.  
"It's funny, because I've never actually seen you working on that project. And you seem to be enjoying yourself when you're with them a lot more, to the point where you joke around with some of his friends." Seungcheol couldn't even deny it. He was rather careless when it came to keeping up with this plan, and he wasn't prepared to ignore the LGBT kids when he passed them in the hallways. Not really ideal when he was with the jocks, but at the same time, he didn't really want them to feel as if he was being two-faced and just paying attention to them when they were sat together.

"Would you show me what you two have so far?" he continued, and the younger boy felt his stomach lurch a little.  
"The... the papers are at home."  
"Right," he sighed, "Well, let me ask you this; are you seeing Yoon Jeonghan? Because you seem to be getting awfully close to him." Seungcheol was left in stunned silence. Surely that wasn't how it was appearing? He paid more attention to the younger boys in the group than he did to their leader anyway.  
"I asked you a question, Choi. Are you in a romantic relationship with him?"

"I'm... I'm not interested in boys." The words didn't sound like his own. He'd never felt this anxious in his life, and honestly, this wasn't what he was expecting from the confrontation.  
"Are you sure, because I have a feeling that you might be. Just a little bit." That shit-eating look on his face showed everything, and Seungcheol felt as if he was about to vomit. Despite that, he let an awkward smile play on his lips as he made direct eye contact for the first time.

"I suppose you haven't forgotten about it then. It was stupid of me to think that you would have. I just don't think that it's appropriate to bring it up."  
"If you don't stab us in the back, there'll be no need to worry." It stung a little to think that eating lunch with another group of people was seen as a betrayal, but he figured that it was characteristic of such a hateful bunch of people to get so defensive of a friend who didn't even actively take part in their discussions. Maybe they were trying to seem superior in front of the other groups for having a rather large following, including around fifteen members from all three high school years, but overall it seemed as if it was petty and childish for them to lay claim to another living, breathing human.

"Need I remind you of how that video will look if it comes out?" There was a bitterness in his tone that left Seuncheol unable to reply. He was naive to think that it would be completely dropped by now, considering how big it had been back when it first came up, but surely it wouldn't be a big deal anymore, six years later? He still wasn't sure whether the jocks could genuinely be that petty.

It took a while for him to be able to speak again, and he did everything possible to calm the inevitable shakiness in his voice as he tried to avoid making it obvious how uncomfortable he was. "No, hyung, I... I know how it'll look, and I'd rather it not." That was all he could manage. The words felt dry as they passed his lips, and he was certain that this guy was able to see right through his recent actions.

"You're to spend a maximum of two days per week with them. Do you understand?"

It was rhetorical, of course. He wasn't given the chance to answer before the other boy stood and made his way towards the door, leaving him in an uncomfortable silence yet again. He stayed there for a few minutes before searching for his phone to text Hansol.

"Please tell Jeonghan that I won't be meeting you all for lunch, and that I'm sorry for cancelling on such short notice. Thank you."


	6. F for Farewell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's to the newest chapter!! We've had a few suggestions on where to take this from some friends, so I'll be working on the ideas over the next few chapters and adding them in where possible
> 
> As always, though, if there is anything that comes up (ideas, improvements, etc), please let me know!!
> 
> Hope you enjoy <3

Jeonghan was insistent on him joining his group, and no apology message was going to stop him from doing what he wanted to do. He had waited for Seungcheol after every class in hopes that he would be separated from the jocks for just a few seconds so that they would be able to talk, and frankly Seungcheol had caught onto it very quickly. He was quickly starting to feel as if he was in the middle of a war in which both sides were constantly monitoring his whereabouts and actions, and it was becoming more and more exhausting as time went on.

He had tried to cut his time with the LGBT group in half in order to reduce the suspicion, but the only way to stop the jocks from asking questions was to accept that they would follow him every time and sit relatively close by in order to hear what the conversations they had were about. Naturally, it set everyone on edge, and rightfully so since their conversations were private, but their attempt at combatting the problem was to do the exact same back when Seungcheol was sitting with the jocks. Each day was getting to be awkward and embarrassing, and Seungcheol had quickly decided that he had had enough of it all. He wanted to belong to one of the groups without the constant conflict and so needed to tell the other group to back off, but picking which one was going to be easier said than done.

As much as he loathed some of the comments that the jocks made, he had known them for a lot longer, and as time passed he was realising that perhaps loyalty was the key to happiness, as well as the obvious way to keep his secret well hidden. On the other hand, the LGBT group was starting to take him in like family when he was with them, and having them address him so lovingly meant a lot already.

He had decided, completely on his own accord, to spend one day as far away from both groups as possible. Each time any member looked as if they were heading in his direction, he would find an excuse to leave or distract himself in some way, with music, work or a book, and he had ensured that he was either the first or last to leave every class in order to avoid any well-timed conversation starters from anyone else. By the time that lunch had finished, they had apparently all taken note of his efforts to avoid them, and had backed off for the most part.

_For the most part._

Of course, there was still Jeonghan, who had obviously been eyeing him up all day, and had made an excuse to take his time with packing up his belongings in the final class of the day. It was the one day of the week where they were the only ones to be in that specific class, out of all of the jocks and LGBT kids, and so he made every effort to use the time afterwards to talk to Seungcheol, every single week.

"Will you please talk to me?" he asked as he followed the older boy out of the room this time, "I need to know what I can do to help." Seungcheol sighed in defeat as he turned towards his classmate.  
"Look, Jeonghan, I... I can't do this anymore. I'm already getting threats of my secret being leaked without having to feel torn between you all. It's not you; I just need space."  
"It sounds as if you're breaking up with me, Choi Seungcheol."  
"Maybe that's what I _am_ doing." 

"Well, what if I told you that we're not breaking up? If a lightbulb is broken, you don't get rid of the entire house."  
"You do if the house tries to stop you from visiting other houses, though, especially if you left your things at your ex house and have to go to retrieve them."  
"But this house wants to be selfish and keep you all to itself." They stared each other down for a solid minute before a slight smile eruped on Jeonghan's face. He gave Seungcheol a playful push on the shoulder as the smile was returned in an awkward, lopsided manner. 

It was a weird conversation, but not one that was completely alien to them both. As the assigned parent friends of the LGBT group, they had picked up the habit of faking a relationship, but were both aware of its lack of substance. It was one thing about being a part of the group that Seungcheol enjoyed most of all.  
"Okay, fine. I understand. I'm not going to accept it, but I understand your circumstance. It's your decision, at the end of the day; your life. Now, can I talk to you as I walk you home? It's probably the only time that we can chat over the next few weeks without your parasites transcribing our conversations."

His words laid heavy on Seungcheol's chest. Matched with that smile, and it was almost a killer shot. The way that Jeonghan was so patient with him was very different to the way that he spoke with the rest of the jocks, and even different to the way that he treated the rest of the LGBT kids. He almost felt as if he didn't deserve the kind treatment, as much as he appreciated it. Jeonghan motioned for him to walk next to him, and they quickly matched a slow pace together as they went. "It's a shame you weren't with us today, you know. Chan finally got a date with Jihoon and wanted you to be the first to know, since you encouraged him to ask and all." It was difficult not to beam with pride as he heard the news; although it was something small, it was something that the youngest of the group had been struggling with for a few weeks, and was too nervous to talk to the other boys about it. Seungcheol had noticed the smitten look on his face whenever Jihoon acknowledged him, and had encouraged him to make the first move, so it was great that he had finally built up the courage to do so.

"You know, I really appreciate everything you do for my boys," Jeonghan continued in a soft voice. It had a hint of tenderness that was often hidden behind scolding and worry. "You know that they're my world, and you've never once done anything to upset them. You've even risked being caught out by the jocks, just to see them smile. Don't think I haven't noticed." His hand brushed against Seungcheol's as they walked, in a platonic yet appreciative manner.

He glanced over towards the younger boy as they walked side by side. It was pleasant to be walking in the dark with him like this, with no particular rush to get back home and no big responsibilities for either of them to take care of. There was silence between them for a while, as Seungcheol had figured that replying to the comment would imply that he had done it for recognition as opposed to genuine feelings. Chat quickly grew idle for the final stretch before they got back towards his house, with little comments here and there about things that they had encountered in their day, and whatever each of those things could possibly lead to, but it wasn't boring in the slightest; rather, it was nice to be able to have the company.

They had stopped once they reached the front door, and it felt for a moment like a boyfriend walking his girlfriend home, but they had moved apart a fair distance in order to secure in their own minds that that definitely wasn't the circumstance. Apparently both had interpreted it in the same way, too, as they moved apart simultaneously and shared a quick laugh about it together.

"I'm here for you if you need me, okay? Any time of any day."  
The smile that followed was sweeter than any other. Jeonghan was smiling with his teeth this time, but it was an attractive look on him. The apples of his cheeks had ripened, and little creases appeared on either side of his nose. It was a little goofy, but was also a smile that Seungcheol wanted to see more often.

As he leant in to hug him, Jeonghan made a point of obviously slipping something into Seungcheol's coat pocket, making sure to leave the contact as something brief before making his way back in the direction of his own home. Seungcheol had waited until he was completely out of sight before taking a scrunched up piece of paper out of his pocket and straightening it out.

"I'm sure you already know, but I don't intend on giving up on you just yet."

Scrawled at the bottom was a phone number. The younger boy certainly was persistent; Seungcheol would give him that.


	7. G for Gaminesque

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go; next chapter is ready!
> 
> Admittedly this one was rather difficult to write, even though I knew where I wanted it to go, so apologies if the flow is a bit off!!
> 
> Hope you enjoy, and as always, feel free to comment with any additions <3

Seungcheol had promised himself that he would wait until the morning to text Jeonghan, but the more he thought about it, the harder it got. Although he had intended on going straight to bed, he found that he suddenly wasn't that tired anymore, and the only thing on his mind was messaging Jeonghan.

It seemed desperate, though, considering that he had only just walked away, and that was the last impression that Seungcheol wanted to give.

Somehow he managed to get to sleep without sending that first message, but his hands had been on his phone from the moment he woke up. Four in the morning probably wasn't the best time for him to be sending that first text, but he had figured that Jeonghan would be waking soon anyway for their morning classes. He grabbed the leftovers from last night's dinner to subsitute as a quick breakfast, before making his way out of the door and to class. Luckily, the reply to his message came just a few minutes after he had left the house, but he seemed to be faced with a groggy friend who was simply hitting any letter combinations on his phone and hoping that it would make a bit of sense to Seungcheol.

He had waited at the gates for Jeonghan, having seen him get progressively less tired through his texts as time went on, and by the time he made it to Seungcheol's side, he looked well enough to actually pay attention in their early morning classes without falling asleep on his book. Apparently, he was already being fueled by coffee that morning, and wasn't planning on reducing his caffeine levels at any point through the day, as he held two large flasks of coffee up in the air to demonstrate his point.

This was one of the classes where they could freely sit next to each other. It was usually relatively quiet, and the students who did turn up tended to be too tired to be sociable for at least the first quarter or so. The class was mostly made up of the tutor explaining things to them and the students simply writing notes on it, so as much as they tried to concentrate on the subject, it was easy enough to start dropping off, after getting just a few hours of rest. Today in particular was one of the hardest days for Seungcheol, since his classes had started at five this morning and finished at ten at night, in comparison to most days where he could quite easily go home early and do individual study or turn up a little bit later in the morning.

As the tutor turned her back to the class, Jeonghan slipped him a cup of coffee and a note. Of course, Seungcheol had reached for the note first, and was careful to unfold it when he was sure that it wasn't going to be seen.

_"I have a few more ideas to propose:_

_Plan 1: Spend a few weeks being too busy to join either group so it doesn't look like favouritism, then we'll rescue you.  
Plan 2: We'll start a fist fight during lunch and the winner claims you for their own (NOT recommended; Minghao and Seungkwan are probably the only other two who would be willing to hit someone, and maybe Wonwoo at a push).  
Plan 3: I'll just come over and make out with you in front of them. Just straight out eat your face."_

Seungcheol slowly looked up at him from the paper to an awkward smile from Jeonghan. "I'm out of ideas," he mouthed with an exasperated sigh, "But I'm not giving up. I'll come up with something else." Seungcheol gave a pat to the younger boy's arm in appreciation as he turned back to take notes on the jargon that was being thrown at them before thinking over it some more.

Admittedly, the ideas did seem as if they could work to a degree, but it was clear that they were meant as jokes. The first was something that could work out pretty well, other than the reliance on the group coming up with another plan to pry him free whilst he was off pretending to have left the planet or something. The second would be fun, but considering that most of them probably wouldn't consider starting a fight, it wasn't likely to work. The third, on the contrary, would probably _lead_ to a fist fight, if he was completely honest, but he found himself thinking about that one a lot more than the other two.

There was something about the thought of Jeonghan walking up to him in front of the rest of the group, grabbing his chin and leaning in to press their lips together. It made Seungcheol's chest feel a bit tight to think about the thrill of that one going down; even if they were both clearly straight, it would probably throw both groups off if he was to do that. It took every bit of strength for him to refrain from circling that option and sending it back, with most of said strength coming from the thought of the consequences. A fist fight would probably be the least of their problems, in all honesty.

Nevertheless, once he had built the confidence to bring it up, Seungcheol had mentioned it.

They were waiting for the first official class of the day at that point, and he had made a joke about how if it got too bad, he'd probably be fine with Jeonghan going ahead with the final plan, but he was certain that it was going to cause more issues than anything. Jeonghan had offered him a hopeful smile and asked whether the negative consequences were even anything too bad, but of course, he already knew the answer right from the start, and his friend's expression had confirmed it before the sentence had even finished passing his lips.

"I know you said that you weren't ready to talk about it last time we spoke," he recalled, "But we've become really close over the past month or two, in my opinion, and I really don't think that I can come up with any successful plans without knowing what you're worried about. I can't really judge you for it, considering the sorts of things that I did when I was younger. I'll tell you about them some time if that makes it any easier for you."

Seungcheol could almost feel the bile rising up his throat at the thought of revealing something so delicate. It was something that he was willing to guard with his life, but deep down, he had always known that he wouldn't really be fully happy with that burden still on his mind. The jocks had had their power over him for years now, and the fact that the eldest in the group hadn't forgotten it just proved that they were still willing to use it against him as a form of blackmail if he was to step out of line. Perhaps it was his intense fear of being seen in the light that the video portrayed him in that was causing the biggest problems - and thus, the greatest amount of control over his actions.

"Look, I don't want to pressure you into it if you're--"  
"Ask Hansol."  
Jeonghan blinked a few times, as he tried to figure out whether he had heard correctly.  
"Excuse me?"  
"I don't want to say what happened, but I'll text Hansol and ask him to tell you after classes today. He wasn't in the group at that point, but they told him exactly what happened, and they sent him the video file in an email."

Seungcheol was about to cry; he could hear it in his own voice. It was something that he rarely ever did, and something else that he absolutely avoided showing in front of other people. He excused himself from the room, since they still had around twenty minutes before classes were due to start properly, but as he stood, he could see the hurt in Jeonghan's face. Not over the fact that he wasn't talking, but over the fact that the seriousness of the incident was starting to set in.

It had been passed on to people who had joined the group after it had actually happened, presumably for no reason other than to be malicious. It was a memory that made Seungcheol _tear up_ , and not even hearing that his father had been rushed into hospital the previous year had left him in this sort of state. It was solely in existence to humiliate and hurt him, and as much as it had seemed like just a silly anxiety beforehand, it was seemingly becoming the reality for Jeonghan, too. 

Maybe it was going to make it easier to talk to him about this sort of thing once it was out there in the open, but it had to get out there first.


	8. H for Hansol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost at the dreaded reveal chapter, though this one is here to give a better explanation over the situation since I've realised that it wasn't necessarily clarified all too well!!
> 
> Thank you for any feedback, and for reading - as always, please let me know if any issues are raised!! <3

"Hansol, I'm coming home with you tonight."  
Seungkwan had gone to make a joke about how they should probably discuss it between them before Jeonghan went home with his boyfriend, since they were monogamous and all, but quickly shut up when he saw the seriousness in the older boy's expression. He had turned up to lunch a few minutes after everyone else, and had dropped the statement before he had even had the chance to sit down. Jeonghan could feel all eyes on himself, but continued to stare solely at the newest member of the group, who slowly lowered his spoon back down towards his bowl before responding.

"Should I tell my mum that it's an emergency that you come over tonight? You know how she worries when we have surprise visitors." Both his expression and voice expressed his pure confusion.  
"Please do," he replied, allowing his expression to soften ever so slightly to reflect his concern for the situation, as opposed to the irritation that his bitch face was probably showing.  
"And can I ask what this is about, or...?"  
"The reason why Seungcheol isn't leaving the jocks."

He wasn't going to lie to the rest of the group and raise suspicion, but he also wasn't prepared to say the exact problem out loud for everyone to hear. After all, they knew not to bring it up or ask questions, so the secret was still safe, and luckily it seemed as if Hansol knew exactly what was coming up anyway, as the colour drained from his face and he simply gave a few very quick nods of understanding before turning back to his food.

They both remained quiet for the rest of lunch, although everyone else made up for it with conversations about random topics, such as videos that they had accidentally found on the internet after leaving autoplay on whilst they went for dinner, and the token heated discussion about whether it would be better to come across a bear-sized spider or one hundred spider-sized bears.

When everyone had gone to leave, Hansol grabbed Jeonghan's wrist, asking him to hold back for a moment and walk behind with him for a few minutes. Of course, he obliged and waited for the last of their group to start heading towards their first afternoon class before they started walking. "Did he tell you that you were okay to know everything about what happened?"  
"I wouldn't bring it up otherwise. He should be sending you a text shortly to confirm anyway. Is it really as bad as he says it is?"

Hansol visibly swallowed and gave a slight nod. He seemed to be almost as uncomfortable as Seungcheol was to talk about it, but it was still probably going to be a lot easier on him to discuss it than it would have been for the older boy to talk about it. "What you have to understand about this situation is that the jocks didn't want me anymore when I came out; I'm in the year below Seungcheol so I wasn't there for the original group formation, and when I moved on, it was only a slight knock to their pride. Seungcheol is different; he was there when the group went from four close friends to fourteen sports enthusiasts, and now that they're losing their power over a second member, they're getting desperate."

That was where he had left it for the moment. He had wished Jeonghan a good afternoon before making his way over to his own classes, and Jeonghan had gone to his own with a number of questions already swimming through his head. The older boy had decided to drop his _hagwon_ classes for the evening in order to sort this issue out, since he wasn't prepared to plague Hansol's mother by turning up to their house late at night for a several hour long discussion, and by the time it came to the end of the day, his list had grown to be increasingly comprehensive. He had figured that it would be tough to get most of the information out of Hansol, as it had been to finally encourage Seungcheol to give him permission to explore the topic a bit more, but it was also his chance to get it completely out in the open between the three of them and work on his plans to get his friend away from the toxicity of the group.

Even after class, there was no further mention of the situation until they were safely in Hansol's bedroom with the door shut, and both of them sat comfortably on the bed. "So..." Jeonghan started.  
"So, the video... Right, so the group started off with initiations for everyone other than the original four. The second years got relatively normal, nice ones, but they knew that they could play the first years a bit. One of them ended up stripped completely ass naked in the toilets whilst those in their second or third year did whatever they wanted to him, mostly hitting him with things and being spat on, and if he reacted to it, he would be forced to leave the bathroom and walk through the halls like that."

Jeonghan felt sick just thinking about it. The fact that a kid of thirteen was subjected to that sort of treatment was something that didn't really sit with him all too well. It only got worse as Hansol continued with his explanation with out waiting for any comment on the behaviour. "The group leader had a bit of a thing against Seungcheol, though. He was dumb enough to make the leader's little sister fall for him with his boyish charms - you know how he does - but then when she asked him on a date, he said that he wasn't looking for a relationship, since he was working on school work and his sports every day and wouldn't be able to see her. Nice and gentle rejection, according to everyone else, but she was humiliated and heartbroken, so her brother decided to return it. Gave him the worst initiation of anyone else in the group, and made sure that it was recorded so that he could absolutely break Seungcheol if he ever wanted to."

By this point, the older boy had his eyes closed as he tried to avoid imagining it. "Would you like me to continue or stop for now?"  
"I don't think I want to hear it anymore; I can imagine that it's going to be something that I'm going to absolutely hate."  
"Would you prefer it if I send you the file so that you've got five minutes of it and then we can sweep it under the rug?" Jeonghan took in a long, deep breath as he nodded affirmative. Five minutes would spare him the gory details and he could always turn it off if it got to be too much, whereas he didn't think that he would have the confidence to stop Hansol from talking in order to avoid the reality of the situation.

The more it came up, the more he was realising just how delicate the situation was. It was bad enough that Seuncheol had spent six years trying to deal with the humiliation of it all, without having to worry about others getting copies of the videos, and the fact that if he was to stop talking to them, there would be a risk of it being leaked. Perhaps it wasn't just the pride inolved with losing a second member to his group, but also the determination to make his life a living hell if he dared slip out of line again after the first slip up.

They had completely changed the topic for an hour or so to calm down, then Jeonghan thanked Hansol for the information that he offered and wrote down his email address on a slip of paper before taking his leave. It was due to arrive before he had made it home from Hansol's house, which took away the anxiety of waiting at his laptop for it to finally come through, but it also made him want to drag the walk out for as long as possible in order to avoid feeling as if he had to watch it.

He could feel himself getting slower and slower as he walked, with the mental excuse that he was texting Seungcheol about how boring the evening classes were for him, and so walking quickly made it harder to concentrate on what he was typing. He hadn't even mentioned the fact that he had visited Hansol to discuss the video, as not to make him nervous to find out what exactly Jeonghan knew now. It would just make everything harder for them both, if nothing else. Jeonghan already knew that it was going to take a lot to stomach the video, but there was something about finding this all out that made him feel as if they were gradually coming to trust each other more.


	9. I for Initiation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally we're here; the most important chapter so hard. This is something that was planned out about a month or so ago, so it was just a matter of trying to perfect the description of everything, but hopefully it has the desired effect on you all!!
> 
> As always, please let me know how you're feeling and if you have any feedback!! 
> 
> Thank you for reading <3

It had taken a solid half hour for Jeonghan to build up the confidence to check his emails. The file had downloaded uncomfortably quickly, giving him limited time to mentally prepare himself for what was coming up, and he had ended up sitting with his curser hovering over the icon for a while as he debated whether he wanted to see it. If it was as big as Hansol and Seungcheol had suggested it was, perhaps it still wasn't his place to check just yet. After all, they might have been gradually becoming close friends, but they had still only been talking properly for a few months, and was that really long enough when this secret was supposed to be incredibly delicate? It had taken an internal debate to make his decision; he had figured that there was no way to help Seungcheol if he didn't know what he was helping with, and so finally built up the confidence to double click.

_The camera started off shaky as it was turned on, but was soon stabilised and moved ever so slightly to the left in order to capture the image of the twelve year old stood with his back against the wall. The person holding it was stood behind a few other people so that the camera was hidden as best as possible. Apparently, Seungcheol hadn't seen it as he hadn't looked over just yet, and his eyes were locked on someone who was off to the other side of the camera._

_They were in what appeared to be their old middle school gym, tucked into one of the corners. The only thing that really showed that was the equipment to the right of the boy, but it was rather hard to see in the slightly dimmed lighting of the room._

_"You have to do this, Seungcheol; you already agreed to do anything to get into the group." He seemed nervous to do so, especially with everyone gathered around him, but slowly nodded his head. His body appeared to be shaking ever so slightly as he did so, and the anxiousness was obvious from his expression. He looked around the group, and chewed on his lower lip ever so slightly. "Can we maybe... can we maybe make this a bit more private, please? Maybe if we can drop half--"  
"It has to be in front of everyone. Don't you trust us?"_

_The response was another shaky nod. He was clearly embarrassed as one of them moved to stand next to him with his phone out, and seemed to be a bit wary until the other guy started navigating through his phone. "See? Photos for you. Go for it." He was still hesitant to do so to start with, until one of them informed him that the next class started in twenty minutes, and if he was to put it off any longer, there would be a higher chance that someone else would walk in. No one was willing to cover him in that situation, and he would end up completely exposed in front of a group of his classmates._

_He squeezed his eyes shut before reaching a hand towards the front of his trousers; he bit down on his lower lip as the hand hesitated around the waistband for a moment._

Jeonghan moved the mouse towards the exit button on the video and hovered his forefinger over it. He felt as if he had seen enough of the video, but surely there was more to it than this. Granted, it was embarrassing for him to be stood there in front of the entire group with his junk out, masturbating furiously, and the recording was definitely a humiliating thing, but he had a feeling them the little comments and muffled laughs that there would definitely be something else towards the end of the video. 

His hand dropped back to his side as he continued to watch, his eyes fixed on the boy's expression more than anything. He was trying more than anything to avoid looking at what Seungcheol's hands were doing, since it seemed particularly creepy to be watching a boy who was still so young doing that sort of thing, but his face appeared to show more discomfort than anything. It seemed as if he was trying to combat the anxiety of having to do this in front of everyone by focusing exclusively on the images on the phone, although even then it was clear that he was worried about being judged for what he was doing.

_He had stayed relatively quiet throughout, even when he finished up, and one of them passed him a tissue to clean himself up. Seungcheol made the clean up process quick, as he was desperate to make himself look decent again, but of course the real fun was due to start when he was all done. "Did I pass, then? Am I a part of the group now?" There was a hint of hope in his voice; the desperation of a child in need of approval._

_"We can't say for sure just yet. That's Chunghee's decision, and since he's not here to confirm for us, you're going to have to wait until the end of the day. However..." His eyes snapped up at the pregnant pause that followed, and his face was overcome with worry again, especially when some of the other guys in the group started to smirk and snicker._  
_"What is it? Is something wrong?"_  
_"The girls that you were touching yourself over?" Another long pause. Another few smirks. The colour was quickly draining from his face._

_"They were all men in drag, you filthy faggot."_

Jeonghan could barely bring himself to watch the pain in Seungcheol's eyes as the group began to laugh at him. The humiliation was obvious from the moment they said it, and now everyone in the group had seen him not only drop his pride enough to do that in front of them, but he had then been mocked mercilessly over something that he hadn't been aware of. That was the punishment for rejecting a popular guy's little sister, and it was probably one of the cruelest things that Jeonghan could imagine him being subjected to, especially if the video was sent to all of the new members of the group, too.

He felt sick. He had accused Seungcheol of being an enabler and had chewed him out over not saying anything to stop his friends from saying such cruel things to the LGBT kids, but honestly if he had been in that situation, he wouldn't have been able to bring himself to stop them either.

He had called Hansol immediately to find out what happened next, and had found himself almost shouting down the phone as he demanded details. Jeonghan barely recognised his own voice as his emotions completely took over, but Hansol had been completely understanding over the reaction. "He didn't want to be a part of the group, but they had told him that they would expose him if he tried to leave from that point. The guy who had touched himself in front of twelve other guys, over photos of other men, who had rejected a beautiful girl, probably because he was gay or something. It destroyed him for about a month."

"And then what? Chwe Hansol, you can't just leave it at that!"  
"And then he got a girlfriend. Dated her for around six months, slept with her even though he wasn't ready to give up his virginity just yet. Told the group about it to get them off his back, and of course they spread it around the school, labelled her as a slut, and she broke up with him. But at least they couldn't spread things around about him being gay, just so that he would be pushed around by the older guys."

Jeonghan's entire body felt numb. It wasn't a feeling that he was used to in the slightest; usually he would have something to say about this sort of situation, but it was all hitting at once and he could barely handle the overload of information all at once. Regardless of whether Seungcheol was gay, bisexual or straight in the end, he had suddenly found himself getting protective of the older boy, and had made an active decision to get himself away from the toxicity of the group. It was no longer just to get him away from the general homophobic comments and into a more supportive group, but also a way of helping him to make a new start away from the pain and humiliation that he had associated with the jocks as a result of the trauma that he had faced. He had half expected the intense anxiety over the blackmail to be a childish overreaction, but this was the brutal reality of the situation, and it had clearly taken a lot of strength on Seungcheol's part to trust other people with this sort of secret.


	10. J for Jam

Seungcheol had barely made his way out of the school building after his evening classes before his phone had started ringing. A quick check confirmed that it was Jeonghan, just as he had expected following his discussion with Hansol about the video, and he had picked up immediately in order to get the talk out of the way.

"I want to point out that this is something I've been thinking about for a while, by the way, not just because of what I spoke with Hansol about," he said immediately, without even greeting the older boy or trying to build up to it. It was the typical 'no shit' attitude that Jeonghan had taken on when he was on a mission to get things done, and whilst Seungcheol rather appreciated the fact that his friend hadn't tried to sugarcoat the true reason for his call, he was already anxious enough about mentioning anything that could possibly be linked to the video.3

"Go ahead," he encouraged, and the pause between his reply and Jeonghan's was painfully long.  
"I just wanted to ask what your sexuality actually is."

He had been straight out and blunt with it, and if Seungcheol was being honest, it was rather intimidating. It was a subject that he tried not to think about; one that was awkward and uncomfortable for him since his middle school days, and one that he had skilfully avoided at all costs. He had figured that if he didn't mention it, he would be seen as the default heterosexual and everything would be fine, but each time he had been forced to assign a label to himself in that sense, he had felt as if he was trying to convince himself that that was the box he fit in.

In all honesty, the only time he had really thought about it hard was immediately after the incident, where he had been absolutely distraught over it and had to check up the implications of it for himself. Apparently, being sexually attracted to drag queens didn't mean that an individual was gay in the slightest, since the whole point of drag was to appear feminine, but at the same time, there was something about the answer that hadn't quite satisfied him. 

Whilst he wouldn't quite say that he was attracted to men as such back then, it was the truth of the matter that he had stared at other guys occationally with no idea of whether their looks were his life goals or whether he wanted to date them. Yet, the word 'boyfriend' didn't roll of his tongue just right; it didn't sound right when his fourteen year old self had said it out loud to describe his relationship with a girl, and sure as hell it didn't sound right when he imitated one of his friend's girlfriends and called him his boyfriend out loud. It just sounded dirty, if anything, and had left him wondering whether he really wanted to hear that word passing his lips on a regular basis.

"I don't want to put a label on myself," he stated quietly as he checked around to make sure that there was no one else around to overhear the conversation, "But I suppose if the right guy came along, I wouldn't reject him. Does that make sense?"

"Of course it does. Though I'd just like to point out that we've got a mixing pot in the group, so there's no need to feel like you won't fit in or anything. Jisoo is pretty exclusively straight, for example, whereas I'm pretty exclusively gay, as you could probably tell. Seokmin is equally into guys and girls, Seungkwan has a leaning towards guys, and Junhui has a slight preference towards girls. There's asexuals in the group, some who are still trying to figure out where they sit on the spectrum, some who thought they were only into girls then ended up falling for one of the guys in the group, and others, like yourself, who don't want to put a label on themselves. Don't worry about it."

It had been comforting to hear Jeonghan being so understanding and accepting about the entire situation, considering that he had called primarily to find out something that Seungcheol couldn't even tell him. They had continued talking for a while until Seungcheol had finally made it back to his house, and he had wished Jeonghan a good night before hanging up and going into the house.

He flopped as soon as he hit his room, so that his face was buried in his pillow. The question had caused an unnecessary amount of stress considering how simple it was, and he had no idea of why that was. It was difficult enough to answer without it coming from Jeonghan himself, and if he was being honest, the more he thought about his sexuality, the less appealing girls seemed to be in his opinion. There hadn't really been any girls whom he'd found particularly stunning since his ex from five years ago, but there had, on the other hand, been at least a handful of boys who had caught his interest.

Then there was the issue of trying to avoid labels. It was a perfectly legitimate thing, really; he'd spoken to Mingyu about it on one occasion, and Mingyu had simply explained his own sexuality being based around him liking hot people, so he just fell for whoever, regardless of their gender. The past three relationships had been with girls, apparently, but then Wonwoo came along and he was completely blown out of the water. 

Whilst Seungcheol appreciated that, it just felt as if he didn't have a place to belong, if anything. A label wasn't necessarily going to change that, but perhaps it would make it easier for him to handle the reality of the situation. It didn't necessarily have to be something solid, he figured, but something to make him feel more included.

The only label that seemed to fit for the moment was 'bisexual'. Another word that had come with negative connotations in his mind, too, alongside 'boyfriend'. It was something that his friends had laughed about, and was often used in stories about girls who would kiss other girls for male attention, or guys who wouldn't really consider dating other guys, but would say that they were bisexual so that girls would think that they had a sensitive 'gay' side. Half gay, half straight. It was far from the actual definition of the word, but it was difficult to break away from the associations that sprung to mind.

'Bisexual' wasn't a word that he wanted to use, but it was that sense of community and belonging that he could at least share with Seokmin, Seungkwan and Junhui, if nothing else.

It had taken Seungcheol a painfully long time to fall asleep now that he had the new sense of identity flooding his mind. It wasn't as if he would suddenly wake in the morning and be sporting the bisexual flag somewhere on every single item of clothing, but it felt as if he would probably be looking at himself differently as a person now that he had a more solid concept of self.

It was the first thought to cross his exhausted mind at five in the morning as he dragged himself out of bed for his early morning classes, though. The day started with mathematics today, and it was probably the last subject that he wanted to be catching up on at such an hour. In fact, he had quickly figured that the only thing that would keep him awake for the entire school day would be coffee mixed with energy drinks, with perfectly timed lesson transitions to allow up to six minutes of napping before teaching was due to start, if it was necessary or even possible to do so.

It worked relatively well for the most part, and the class had had his full attention throughout, which was a bit of a change considering that even when he was completely awake, he spent most of the class struggling to keep up. The need to nap had completely left him by this point, and he was certain that he could hear the dull thumping of his heart in his ears the entire time. Regardless of whether his caffeine decisions were good or bad, it was definitely working to keep him awake.

Seungcheol made his way straight to the morning classes once dismissed, instead of getting coffee with everyone else. The room was strangely empty for once, and he had barely even walked through the door before a bright pink sticky note on his desk had caught his eye. He made his way straight over to sit, hoping that no one else would enter the room whilst he read it, and was greeted with a scrawled mess of a note in black ink.

"I've come up with an idea but I don't think you're going to like it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update! I've had so many assignments to hand in for university, plus a load of things to sort out for doing a second degree - I didn't realise that doing a medical degree was going to be this much work before I've even officially applied, but it's literally taken up all day every day for the past week.
> 
> This one is a little bit of a filler chapter, but it's setting the scene for the next chapter (which I promise will come a lot sooner than this one did), so hopefully you all still enjoy it regardless!
> 
> Thank you all for being so patient, and as always, please message if any ideas come up <3


	11. K for Kiss

The way that Jeonghan was staring at him throughout the first half of the day made Seungcheol more uncomfortable than anything else. He could barely concentrate on his work whilst he could feel the eyes on him, and it wasn't even subtle in the slightest. Even when he looked up from his paper, those dark brown orbs were locked on his; he didn't even attempt to look away as if he wasn't staring or anything, and it left Seungcheol on edge.

He had sat with the jocks for lunch again this time, whilst the LGBT kids had all come to sit in the same room, as usual. There were a few other students dotted around the room, but they were all minding their own business for the most part. Both groups had started eating and chatting between themselves, but also making sure to keep their voices unnaturally quiet for two groups of friends; the jocks to prevent the LGBT kids from hearing their conversation with Seungcheol, and the LGBT kids as not to miss anything that might have been said by the jocks. They were both gradually getting quieter and quieter until Seungcheol's phone beeped loudly to notify a message, and suddenly everyone grew completely silent as they turned to face him in complete anticipation. It was from Hansol, according to the personalised beeping pattern, and although the jocks were curious to see who it was from, it was clear that the LGBT kids already knew that detail.

He was self conscious now, and refused to check the message until everyone had started chatting again. It had taken a bit of encouragement with random conversation starters, but soon they were back to their original volume as they started talking about the new topic. Once eyes were back off him again, he took out his phone to read the message.

"Don't answer the text, just cough as you put your phone away if you agree. Jeonghan came up with a new plan to take you from the group, but it's risky. This will be permanent, so you have to be sure that you definitely want to leave. Do you agree?" He didn't even need a moment to think about it. With a loud cough, he slipped the phone back into his pocket, before trying to pick up on the conversation with the jocks. The LGBT kids all moved into a huddle around one table for a minute or two, and their conversation grew incredibly hushed for that period.

Jeonghan rose from his seat very slowly, as if he was nervous to actually go ahead with his own plan, and he moved over to the jocks with a slight hesitation behind every single step. The closer he got, the quieter everyone grew, until he was stood directly in front of them with a faked confidence brushing over his features. There was a moment in which he opened his mouth as if to speak, but no words came out as he looked around the group. A glance over to the LGBT kids showed that they were all similarly staring in anticipation.

Seungcheol felt a shiver run through his entire body when they made eye contact again. The reluctance behind Jeonghan's smile was suggesting that he wasn't particularly fond of this idea, but it had become a last resort, probably as a result of finding out what the video contained. The younger boy took in a long, deep breath, then promptly leant down towards Seungcheol with such speed that he had no time to register what was happening until their lips were pressed together.

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly as they held the kiss for a moment; Jeonghan's friends had immediately started making noises of amazement over the fact that he had actually done something so ridiculous, and the jocks were staring holes into the side of his head, even after they parted. It took a moment for him to gather the courage to open his eyes again, but he was instantly faced with a boy who looked as if he wanted to be swallowed by the ground more than anything else in the world.

"Your straight ass has been tainted by the gay. Go join your true calling." His voice was a lower tone than usual, but still at a volume that ensured everyone would be able to hear that he was describing Seungcheol as being straight. He was slow to rise from his seat and made his way over to the other table without making eye contact with anyone else in the room. It was a surreal experience, in all honesty; he didn't know whether he was happy that he had not only been kissed by an attractive guy and managed to get away from the group who caused him so much stress, or whether to be terrified because it quite frankly wasn't going to be that simple.

"Gay, straight, whatever. You know the rules, Seungcheol. You embarrass us, we humiliate you."

There was his answer. He could almost feel the vomit rising up his threat already.

Yet, Jeonghan's neck had snapped around with almost enough force for it to break when he heard the comment. Mama bear mode had immediately come out, as he spun back towards the jocks and slammed his hands down hard on the table. "I really, really hope you're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting."  
"So I guess you've seen it too?" The voice of the group's leader was cold but was laced with a hint of amusement.

The pregnant pause before Jeonghan replied suggested that he was considering denying it, but he had gone too far to back out now. "Of course I have, and I've done my research on that, actually." His voice sounded weak and unsure for a moment, but he quickly composed himself before continuing with a more confident composure. "I'm fairly certain that you're aware of the fact that you legally can't do that, and unfortunately that fact hasn't quite clicked with Seungcheol, since he's been pretty flustered by this entire situation. You see, if you spread it to others, not only could it be considered to be cyber bullying, but there are no less than three companies who regulate the distribution of pornography, nudity, and materials that are considered to be harmful for minors to view."

Seungcheol felt his face burning as Jeonghan explained the situation with a growing coolness. He hadn't expected his friend to put so much effort into ensuring his safety like that, and for a moment he was lost in the review of his findings. Apparently no one else in the group was aware that he had gone this far with it either, as they all stared in awe at their senior as he not only explained what was wrong with the situation, but also gave evidence for every single claim that he made. "--and even if you did jump the loophole by distributing it on social media or on one of the loosely regulated pornography sites, thus avoiding legal issues associated with the distribution of such material, you still have the fact that the legal age of consent to consider, and whilst there's another loophole where Seungcheol was going to be turning thirteen internationally in the year that it was made, unfortunately for you, it's still technically child pornography."

The group leader was sat in complete silence with an unreadable expression on his face. Other members of his group were glancing between him and Jeonghan with a matching look of shock on their faces to that of the LGBT kids. Jeonghan had metaphorically dropped the mic as it became increasingly obvious that he had won, and his face was plastered with the most shit-eating smirk as he leant down so that his forearms were pressed to the table. "So, I'd suggest you delete all evidence of the video as soon as you have access to wherever it's stored."

It had taken a sudden flip in just a second; one that no one could have expected from either group. It might have been the look on Jeonghan's face, or perhaps even a last minute panicked attempt at getting the upperhand, but the dull thud of the leader's fist colliding with his cheek echoed through the room, and for a moment everyone stayed still.

Whilst Jeonghan was generally more of a vocal fighter than someone who would be willing to make things physical, he wasted no time in slamming the ball of his hand into the other boy's head with enough force to slam it straight into the wall. That was the catalyst that started a heat-of-the-moment fight between all of the jocks and the LGBT kids, to the point where they were all shredding at each other. Punches were being thrown, there were bites and scratches, boys ended up on the floor.

Seungcheol was left staring in silence as he helplessly watched it all unfold in front of him, even as staff poured in to break it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's to the semi-conclusion of the jocks' legacy and the start of Cheol being with much better friends!!
> 
> From this point we have just a few more plot points on the way up, a fair share of homosexuality, and quite possibly more drama on the way!!
> 
> Thank you for keeping updated, and as always, please let me know if any ideas or suggestions come up <3


	12. L for LGBT

There hadn't been any contact between Seungcheol and the jocks since the fight. It had been broken up by no less than twenty members of staff due to the sheer scale of it, and whilst the teachers had expected that being separated would diffuse the situation, it remained heated between them until it had hit the point where their parents were called to discuss it. It wasn't something that happened often at their school, but was arguably necessary considering that every time it seemed as if the fight was going to calm down, someone would try to sneak another hit in or spit out a slur or subtly try to trip someone else up.

A week later, Jeonghan had finally gotten over the ass kicking his parents had given him over it. Apparently they had warned him against getting into fist fights over his boys, as much as he loved them, but of course he hadn't quite paid attention to that. The line was drawn when it started to affect his education, they had told him, and having to miss a class that afternoon to discuss why a fist fight wasn't the appropriate response was definitely crossing that line.

He came into school like a hero that day, though, with his head held high as he proceeded to tell his boys about how he was no longer being escorted to and from school and his ban from leaving the house unsupervised had been completely lifted. They were all happy for him, of course, although naturally Jeonghan had caught the slight faulter in Seungcheol's smile when his restrictions had been brought up. He had asked to speak to him privately whilst the rest of the boys made their way towards their first classes for the day, and although he agreed to talk to him, it frankly felt weird for him to still be held behind by Jeonghan after leaving his old friends for good.

As always, he got to the point right away. "Are you still feeling guilty over the fight?" Jeonghan knew him pretty well already. Seungcheol gave a slight nod, but diverted his gaze to the window behind his friend. "Look at me, Seungcheol. Hey, Coups, just... Look at me." At the sound of the new nickname that the group had given him, Seungcheol's eyes snapped back towards Jeonghan's face, and his friend simply pressed both hands to either cheek before continuing. "It was my decision right from the start. My decision to kiss you in front of them like that, my decision to sass him when he was already pushed into a corner, and my decision to fight back. You didn't have any say in it, and it wasn't your fault in the slightest."

There was a slight tension between them whilst Jeonghan's hands were pressed to his face, one that lingered a bit and made the air heavy and left Seungcheol's mouth completely dry. Their eyes were locked on each other's, even after Jeonghan had stopped talking, and neither blinked. His mind was screaming out to lean in and press their lips together, especially with their first kiss being brought up. Jeonghan was probably getting the same feeling from the tension between them too, as his tongue flashed out to dampen the centre of his lower lip. The moment they shared had a brush of intimacy, as the seriousness of the conversation had slipped away and was promptly replaces with softened expressions and the occasional quick glance at the other boy's lips.

The hands moved from his face again before anything could happen between them again, too soon as far as Seungcheol was concerned. A shy smile almost - _almost_ \- confirmed his suspicion over Jeonghan's feelings about the situation, but the younger boy was quick to turn his head before they could be caught in another stare down. "You'd better be quick getting your lunch today, by the way. We have something big to discuss as a group and you need to be there for it." With that, he turned away completely and walked in the general direction of the nearest coffee machine, leaving Seungcheol staring after him until he was out of sight completely.

As always, the day dragged from the point where Jeonghan informed him of their plans for lunch. Seungcheol's energy was completely drained by the time it hit their break, but he remembered the request to be quick about it and so made a special effort to drag himself out of the room to get his food before meeting them on the roof as they used to. Hansol in particular seemed happy that he was one of the first ones to get there and began chatting to him about his weekend whilst they waited for the remaining members of the group to finally turn up and settle down.

Once everyone was present, Han cleared his throat and called for everyone's attention, and the entire group instantly grew silent as they turned towards him. Everyone other than Seungcheol appeared to be buzzing with excitement over whatever topic was about to come up, from what their expressions were suggesting. "Now, as you're probably all aware," he started, but his eyes flashed towards Seungcheol for a moment and caught the confused look on his face, "Except for probably Coups, that is-- we have International Anti-LGBTphobia Day coming up in May, and that means we have our annual party, too. Plenty of notice as always, it is going ahead. Now, I can't really toe the line again this year, even if my parents are in Busan for the weekend; if they find out that we've been drinking, they'll have me mounted on a pole outside the front of our house." A few of them let out disappointed sighs and huffs of defeat in response, but Jeonghan quickly silenced them again before continuing again.

"Let me finish before you start getting fussy. Hansol's parents have agreed to let us use their main room to host it, although they will be in the house the entire time. He's spoken to them and they've said that as long as we're not screaming in the early hours of the morning, breaking things or vomiting, they're happy for us to not only have our party there, but also stay over. Plus they're providing alcohol for us, which is great. No need for fake IDs or convincing university students to buy it for us." A few surprised glances were exchanged between them, especially since they hadn't ever had a gathering where parents would stay in the house nor encourage underage drinking, but none of them were complaining about it either way.

"We just need to gather the funding for the alcohol, snacks and other stuff," Hansol piped up, "They're cool with buying it all for us, but as much as they'd like to, paying for thirteen grown ass men to eat and drink all night is a bit expensive." There were nods of agreement in response before they promptly began to form a list of everything that they needed in order to get it out of the way early on. There were still a good few weeks before the party would take place, but they wanted to be able to distribute the costs as early as possible in order to avoid having to make up the money on the day.

Apparently Seungcheol still seemed to be a little confused by it whilst everyone began going through the list, so Hansol and Jeonghan exchanged a smile between them before changing the positions in the group around so that they were sat either side of him. Without even having to ask him about his feelings over it, they began to shower him with the details of the party; starting with the fact that although it was an international day, it obviously wasn't actively celebrated by many places, and so it was simply an excuse for everyone to gather together in one place as a group. Apparently, between the few in the group who had known each other for a while, such parties usually ended with an instant noodle eating competition, drunk confessions, and a lot of platonic loving between them.

The discussion was cut short when someone suggested introducing Hansol's younger sister, Sofia, to Jisoo so that no one there would be on their own, and Hansol's head snapped around with such speed that it was obvious without seeing his expression that he wasn't happy with it. He yelled back about how it was bad enough having to have her in the same house as Seokmin, since she had seen photos that they had taken as a group and had instantly developed a little crush on him, and so jokes began rising about how Soonyoung had competition for his man. He immediately grew defensive too, agreeing with Hansol that Sofia shouldn't go anywhere near Seokmin.

It was just a typical, comfortable lunch for them all in the end, now that group stress was at a minimum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for slow updates again, we're in the final week of university before study leave and there's still a few assignments to hand in plus some adult responsibilities!!
> 
> Hopefully by the end of next week, most of it should all be sorted though and I *should* be able to finish this fic relatively soon after exams week at the end of May!!
> 
> As always, please feel free to offer suggestions or ideas and I'll check it out! Thanks for reading <3


	13. M for Manifest

Seungcheol and Jeonghan had definitely been gradually getting more affectionate since Jeonghan's bans had been lifted. The younger boy would greet him every morning with hugs and affectionate pet names, and they were texting or talking constantly now that his freedom had returned. It had been a weight from Jeonghan's shoulders, especially since they had officially announced the party as well; everyone had suddenly grown even more upbeat and bubbly now that there was a date to look forward to, but he was arguably the most excited out of everyone. Seungcheol figured that it was probably related to the way that he could finally let loose for that one night without having to worry about his parents' reactions.

The other boys in the group definitely noticed the added affection too, and there were a few glances swapped between them as they watched Jeonghan cuddle against Seungcheol's back on one particular morning. The smirks on their faces only grew as his face pressed into the curve of Seungcheol's neck and he whined about how tired and pathetic he was feeling. "I want a coffee," Jeonghan announced after a moment of rubbing his face on his friend's skin, " Anyone else want one?" He looked around the group and was met with a few head shakes and raised flasks of coffee, then finally turned towards the door and started on his way over in that direction. "Suit yourselves, then."

He had barely passed the door when the group turned to him. It was obvious from glances they shared that it was going to happen; although they shared a bit of affection before that, it was admittedly getting dangerously close to excessive PDA. Seungkwan in particular snapped his head dramatically towards Seungcheol with the most serious expression he had ever seen, and leant forward in his chair as if he was interrogating him. "Be honest with us here," he started, giving theatrical pause before continuing, "Are you and Jeonghan secretly seeing each other or something?"

Seungcheol was caught off guard by the question, and his confused glances around the group seemed to confirm to them that that wasn't the case. There were mutters between them about how it was either genuine confusion or really, really good acting, but they were leaning more towards the idea that Seungcheol genuinely didn't understand what was going on. Jisoo in particular seemed to have a mix of relief and disappointment playing on his expression, whereas the majority of the other boys seemed to be more excited than anything else. The reactions only served to leave him even more confused by the situation, especially when Chan whipped out a notebook and pen, then scribbled something out at the top of the page.

"Could one of you please tell me what's going on?" he asked, although it came across as more of a command than a question. There were more glances between the group again, where seemingly no one wanted to explain the situation to him, but finally Wonwoo cleared his throat to signify that he was going to step up to the job. He flashed an unimpressed glance around the rest of the boys, as if asking why he had to be the adult, then turned back to Seungcheol again.  
"You see, there's been a lot more... touching... between you two lately, and we - Seungkwan and I - had a theory that you and Jeonghan would be in a relationship at some point this year, so we made bets on how long it would take."

There was an awkward silence in which Seungcheol tried to make sense of the whole situation, but Mingyu quickly piped up to fill the silence before it could get awkward. "Jisoo said you'd be in a relationship just after you officially moved to the group, but he's pretty happy that you're not dating since him and Jeonghan are supposed to be best friends and he hasn't mentioned it before, and then Soonyoung expected that you'd be together once Jeonghan's ban was lifted, so they're both out. The rest of us are still in, though, but obviously we can't tell you who chose when in case it influences your decision to start dating him."

"Wait wait wait wait," Seungcheol quickly interrupted before anything else could be said on the topic, "What makes you all think that we're going to end up dating? And why _bets_?"

His attempt at being the assertive dad friend quickly fell through, as each individual person brought a new piece of evidence to the table on command. They were basing it on the soft touches between them both, the little hugs and affectionate pet names and the moments where they clearly both wanted to kiss each other but never quite did it. It was the fact that they spent more time together than they did apart, and when they were apart, they were texting. It was completely different to Jeonghan's relationship with Jisoo, where they were best friends but would still occasionally be affectionate with each other. Seungcheol tried to deny it, but the group were insistent that they were all signs of an upcoming romance.

Yet, before he could get started on his protesting speech about how it was all normal for close platonic friendships and that they were all severely overthinking it, Jeonghan was back in the room. The conversation was immediately dropped and replaced with some video game talk, which was probably prepared in advance as not to be caught in an awkward situation where none of them were talking, but Chan had been completely caught with his notebook still out and simply lifted his knees with the book resting against them as he began to scribble furiously in it. Seungcheol expected it was writing nonsense in order to hide their bet list, just in case Jeonghan asked.

The conversation picked back up again once Jeonghan was sat, but Seungcheol noticed that Chan was a lot more quiet now that they had had the discussion as a group. Perhaps it was just incidental, but he had been messing around with the notebook for longer than was necessary, then excused himself to go to the bathroom in the middle of a heated debate about the expected winners of predator versus predator fights. That was a topic that usually interested him a fair bit and he almost always had some trivia that would obliterate everyone else's arguments, but he didn't even give any input before making his leave.

The eye contact he made with Seungcheol on the way out suggested that there was something else to it, and a final glance before he left was enough to tell him that he wanted to be followed out, so Seungcheol was quick to drop his own excuse before following the boy into the corridor. They walked without speaking for a while, with Chan several metres ahead, until they finally hit a corner in the corridor and a glance backwards told Seungcheol that they were going to be chatting there in order to keep out of sight.

He followed Chan over to the corner, making sure to check beforehand whether any of the other boys from the group had noticed and followed them out. Upon determining that they were completely alone, he moved in towards Chan and gently pressed a hand to his shoulder.  
"Is everything okay?"

"I didn't wanna say it in front of everyone else, since I'd promised Jeonghan that I would keep it between me and him, but it's something that I think you need to know right now." Chan's face was completely serious; it wasn't something that he'd seen on the younger boy's face before, even when he was trying to be mature and describe his feelings for his crush. "And don't get me wrong, I'm only telling you because we're close and I don't want a situation between you two like how it was between me and Jihoon."

Seungcheol remembered that situation well. Chan had been pining over him for months and it had only made it worse when they had started flirting too, but it took so long for them to admit that they had mutual feelings for each other, and in the end Jihoon almost ended up in a relationship with someone else. Not because he no longer had feelings for Chan, but because he thought he had no chance; it had ended up getting messy and hurt everyone involved.

He took a deep breath as he actively avoided making eye contact and tried to find the words to explain the situation to him. "Jeonghan is... well, he's really in love with you, okay? And as much as you deny it, I think you're really in love with him, too. You can see it between the both of you." The younger boy finally looked up once he'd blurted that out, and there was relief in his expression when he saw that Seungcheol wasn't disgusted or offended by it. "That's why he didn't give up on you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a hard one to write; I know where the romance is coming in and how it's going to officially kick off, but it was somehow really difficult to word this one in a way that it wasn't moving too fast?? As a fun fact, this is the fifth draft of the chapter in the past four days, but I decided that it was better to post than overthink it!!
> 
> As another fun fact, over the space of the past three rewrites, we've gone from having a second kiss between them to having the kiss completely removed, but since you've all been so so patient with me, I'll put that bit of the draft in here for your own little romance fix until the true in-story romance comes into play. As a bit of context, they went back to Jeonghan's house to study for an exam the following day, after Meanie made Cheol very aware of his feelings towards Jeonghan, and they were discussing how Jeonghan's parents assumed that every male friend he took home was his boyfriend, which sparked a discussion about the first kiss:
> 
> _"This is going to sound stupid, but would you like to kiss again?"_  
>  He wasn't sure that he'd heard correctly. "Would I like to do what?" he asked, and his friends' eyebrows furrowed.  
> "I mean, it's not really the ideal first kiss with a guy, is it? A surprise peck on the mouth in front of a crowd isn't really something that'll lead you to want to kiss more boys in the future," Jeonghan pointed out, "And besides, best friends can kiss each other." 
> 
> _Those words sent a tingle of excitement down Seungcheol's spine. He hadn't really expected that he would be considered a best friend already, but if anything, it served to convince him that a second kiss might be okay in the end. It was probably going to be the worst mistake of his life, seeing as he was halfway between trying to convince himself that he simultaneously didn't have a crush on Jeonghan and that he was developing one, but quickly decided that this might be the determining factor for him. "Okay, but you'll have to lead it."_
> 
> _It was obvious from the moment he accepted that Jeonghan's confidence suddenly trickled away. He shuffled slightly closer on the bed so that the outsides of their thighs were touching slightly, and he hesitantly grabbed for Seungcheol's chin as his eyes flickered between his eyes and lips. The build up alone was leaving Seungcheol feeling anxious, as if they hadn't kissed before, and his stomach fluttered more and more as his friend slowly moved his face closer. He watched as pretty eyes closed and dark eyelashes rested against soft, pale cheeks, and he closed his own eyes just in time to let the smell of grapefruit-scented shampoo fill his nose before they made contact._
> 
> _The kiss sent white heat through Seungcheol's entire body for a fraction of a second when they first made contact. It left his head feeling dizzy, and even more so when Jeonghan's face angled and gentle lips parted against his own. They gradually parted further until Seungcheol's lower lip was sandwiched between them, and he applied gentle pressure against his mouth for just a moment. As Seungcheol thought he was going to move away again, sooner than he hoped and needed, he felt a flash of what he believed to be his friend's tongue against his lips, and he slipped his own out to meet Jeonghan's in the middle. That was when he felt a true spark between them, but instead of melting together as he expected, Jeonghan quickly drew from the kiss._
> 
> _As with the first kiss between them, it felt as if it ended way too soon, but frankly Seungcheol was glad to have even had the opportunity to do it a second time. If nothing else, it served to prove that yes, he definitely did want to kiss more boys in the future. Eyes gradually opened so that they were gazing into each other's eyes, and he swore there saw the hint of a blush on Jeonghan's cheek as they sat in silence with each other, basking in the warmth of the kiss. Jeonghan's face remained neutral as they stared, until he finally cleared his throat and bowed his head._
> 
> _"I got a bit carried away there, didn't I? It wasn't really a platonic best friend kiss; it was more like a kiss between lovers." Seungcheol felt his heart skip a beat at the suggestion._
> 
> As always, thank you for reading, and please feel free to leave further suggestions!! <3


	14. N for Nudge

Seungcheol was quickly starting to notice Jeonghan's little gestures once they were pointed out to him.

Perhaps he was severely overthinking it all but everything that he had once seen as being platonic was now seeming more and more like it could be something romantic between them. The other boys had been pointing it out too, through little glances and nods whenever they noticed that Jeonghan was toeing the line between being friendly and being flirty.

Wonwoo and Mingyu were assigned by the group as the two who were responsible for guiding Seungcheol through the process of eventually bagging a date with him. Even if their feelings weren't strong enough to call for an actual romantic relationship just yet, they had that little spark that was enough to mean that at least one date was worth a try. Wonwoo and Mingyu weren't particularly amazing with the whole date planning scene, but at the same time they both had their strengths in the area. Wonwoo was the one to find gaps in the conversation in which flirting could be slipped in perfectly, whilst Mingyu was often very out there and obvious with his hints about how they would make the perfect couple.

Despite it all, though, Seungcheol wasn't all too sure about the execution of his flirting attempts. If they had gone that far with little touches and affection translating to nothing romantic between them, surely it wouldn't phase Jeonghan if he was to continue with that bit of skin contact? Yet, there was a such thing as taking the gentle too far, and Seungcheol was quite frankly terrified of getting too close to that boundary just yet. 

It just felt weird to have the other boys making the moves for him.

"Are you studying for your mathematics exam tomorrow?" Wonwoo asked as he took out his lunch. It was just the four of them eating together on that particular day, since they were having a lot of in-class tests in order to check their progress, and so a lot of the group found their own places to study during any free time. Whilst Seungcheol and Jeonghan were rather ahead with their revision, it seemed as if the other seniors were taking to the assessment timetable pretty poorly, and so they were whisking themselves away at every available opportunity. Although the younger students didn't have as much of a push as the seniors to get the top grades, there was still the social and family pressures to deal with, and no one really wanted to risk letting their grades slip for even a second.

"I was planning on skipping out on hagwon today and going home to look over my notes instead," Jeonghan admitted as he took the first bite of his rice, "I can pluck some research paper assignment out of my ass once exams are over to make up for skipping the classes, but there's no avoiding the inevitable wrath that will follow if I mess up the exam papers." The exhaustion over trying to keep up with the expectations was obvious from his expression, but at least he was able to do enough to pass the papers with a decent mark.  
"Maybe you should take Coups home with you to study, since he's the only other senior in the group who isn't panicking over it," Mingyu suggested, and from the sudden smile that erupted on Jeonghan's face, it seemed as if he was onboard with the idea.

The comment was so well-timed and wedged in so perfectly that it almost wasn't obvious that they were trying to set them up. Of course, Seungcheol agreed to go home with him as soon as his friend officially asked if they could study together, and he flashed a thankful glance over at their friends once it was finally arranged.

The end of the day came a lot quicker than usual with a selection of well-timed attempts at flirting coming from the boys whenever possible. 

Since Wonwoo lived in the same direction as Jeonghan, they had all agreed to meet after the final class of the day in order to walk part of the way home together. It wasn't something that they got to do often, so naturally they were all on board with the idea, and the younger couple made their way over to the seniors' class at the end of the day to wait outside for them. It was all fine until both of the older boys exited the room; Seungcheol looked arguably more stressed than he had been at lunch, whilst Jeonghan frankly looked as if he was about to have a meltdown.

Mingyu was quick to ask what happened, although neither him nor Wonwoo were really sure of whether it was a good idea to do so, given their expressions.

"I'm so stressed again right now; they've sprung another Korean writing test on us," Jeonghan groaned as they started to walk down the hall, "Look at my hand!" He lifted his left hand up to show that his thumb and pinky finger nails had been bitten down a lot shorter than the rest, and the skin around a few of his nails looked chewed up. Apparently the bad habit only started to show around exam periods, when Jeonghan was at his peak stress levels, but he tried to limit it to one hand where possible.

Mingyu was quick to grab for his other hand and hold it up close to his face as they were walking, which earned confused glances from both Jeonghan and Seungcheol.  
"This one still looks perfect, though, and that's a good start."  
"That's because it's constantly either on my pen, my phone or in my pocket," he pointed out with a laugh.

The younger boy didn't even miss a beat before replying. "You know where it'd look better, though? In Coups' hand." Seungcheol could feel his neck tingling with embarrassment, and likewise Jeonghan's face was plastered with a look of complete shock as he seemingly tried to come up with some sort of response. He ended up looking between the three of them for a solid minute before thankfully letting out a laugh and moving his right hand to brush delicately against Seungcheol's fingers.  
"You guys are really insistent on us keeping up this parent image, aren't you? Well, I'll let Coups make the final call on that one, since holding hands with a guy is probably the least subtle way for him to flaunt his sexuality, especially in front of half of the school."

Seungcheol silently thanked Mingyu for flirting on his behalf in order to make it seem as if it was all his idea instead of him actually having anything to do with it, and both boys gave a slight bow of their heads in response once they were sure that Jeonghan wasn't watching.

As weird as it felt for them to be flirting for him, it bagged him the chance to hold Jeonghan's hand on the walk home, so he wasn't exactly complaining. The slim fingers wrapped loosely around his own as they walked side by side, and his thumb subconsciously rubbed over Seungcheol's occasionally. He found himself paying little attention to the conversation between the four of them as they walked, dipping in and out sometimes in order to make generic comments when his opinion was called for, but mostly keeping to himself. His attention was only grabbed fully again when the younger two boys said their goodbyes and split off into the opposite direction, which encouraged Jeonghan to make conversation with him directly.

"The boys seem to be trying to get us to be more affectionate with each other lately," he pointed out with a smile, and Seungcheol simply gave a small nod, "I think they're growing to be a bit obsessed with the idea of us being a couple. But no parent friends actually end up dating for real, do they?"  
"I don't think many do, but it probably does happen at times."

Jeonghan let out a low hum as he mulled it over a bit. "It's weird though. They tried to push for me and Jisoo to date back in middle school - you know back when boyfriend and girlfriends didn't really mean much - but that one got dropped really quickly because it was obvious that even if he was into guys more, we really wouldn't work out as a couple. They never pushed me towards anyone again until you turned up."

It was clear that it was coming from the heart, especially when Jeonghan squeezed his hand gently at the end of his reflection. The conversation continued to reveal that he had never really had a proper boyfriend, mostly because he had never found anyone who was good enough to introduce to his boys.

"I think that's where you differ," he finally explained with a smile, "They love and trust you already, every single one of them, and I think they've figured that that's an absolute necessity."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are again; another chapter in the bag!! Another hard one to write though, since we have the ideas on where things should go but the flow is a bit difficult to keep with, especially in 1500 word chapters. Yet, it's gradually getting to the peak of the romance over the next few chapters, featuring some twists here and there since nothing can be completely smooth sailing
> 
> As always, feel free to leave suggestions or give your thoughts and thank you for reading <3


	15. O for Opportunity

The evening of their house party came surprisingly quickly, considering that they had been dealing with exams and revision almost constantly for the weeks leading up to it.

There was only around a week of free time to prepare without any distractions when the day finally came. It was just long enough for them to get the majority of the plans finalised, and then they had the opportunity to set up the Chwe household as soon as they finished school for the day.

Hansol's younger sister and mother were already in the house by the time they got there. He had made sure to ask via text on the walk home, and so was a little on edge by the time they got to the house. Hansol hesitated once he got to the door handle and stood still for a solid ten seconds before opening the door just a fraction and calling in. "Sofia, are you in your room?" The rest of the group glanced awkwardly at each other as his mother called through the house that his sister was in her bedroom studying, and so he slowly let his friends in, instructing them to go straight through to the main room. Seokmin flashed him a grin as he entered, earning a little thwack from Hansol as a result. "Don't go anywhere near my sister," he hissed, causing a few of his friends to snort in response as they passed him.

Seungcheol was at the back of the line and, despite having met Hansol's sister back when they were in middle school, made sure to avoid even glancing in the direction of her bedroom. Hansol had well passed the point of caring about Seungcheol getting close to his sister at this point, but he wasn't prepared to test his luck with the situation when his friend was clearly feeling uncomfortable with the thoughts of the other boys in the group catching her attention.

His mother was already in the main room, greeting all of the boys as they entered, and her face immediately lit up when she noticed Seungcheol. Although his English wasn't too great, he actively tried to switch to her native tongue in an attempt to talk to her a bit, and it was clearly well appreciated since she had been trying really hard to use the little Korean that she knew to chat with the rest of the group. After counting to ensure that everyone was in the main room, Hansol announced that they should probably start getting everything prepared, since they had around two hours before his father was due to get back from work. Whilst they had time to be loud and mess around once his family went out for the evening, there was only a limited amount of time before they had to calm it down as not to disturb them too late into the night.

"Hansol, could you and one or two of your friends come with me to get the last few things from your list before you start setting up please?" Hansol completely froze on the spot. He was visibly unimpressed with the suggestion, since it meant being unable to monitor how close they dared to go near Sofia, but then looked around the group for the ones he would trust least to stay at the house. Decidedly, it was unfair to leave his mother with two unfamiliar guys with poor English, especially when her Korean wasn't all too strong.  
"Seokmin and Jisoo, you two are coming with us. Coups, can I trust you to make sure that no one else hits on Sofia?"

It sounded ridiculous considering that all of the boys in the house were in relationships, other than Jisoo. Yet, he wasn't prepared to upset his friend by telling him that, and so simply nodded in response. It earned a comforted smile from Hansol, though, which was the most important thing. After just a few minutes, they had left the house with Hansol's mother, leaving Seungcheol in charge of everything.

The door had barely closed before they all started looking around the room. "Should we start arranging everything ready for when they come back?" Jihoon asked quietly. There was a mutual hum of agreement shared between them, and so they began to decide who would stay in the main room to organise everything and who would be going to the kitchen to carry it through.  
"I think we should all go and gather everything from the kitchen apart from maybe Jeonghan and Coups. You know, with us all being the kids and them being our parents and all. They've done a lot for us all lately so we shouldn't make them carry stuff," Chan finally suggested, which resulted in more agreeing nods and everyone turning in the direction of their parent friends.

Subtle.

Seungcheol stood in complete silence, not knowing how he should respond, whilst Jeonghan, on the other hand, was quick to tell them that they could trust them to get everything set up perfectly. After all, it was probably quicker to get them all to bring everything into the main room all at once so that it could be arranged as they go along. That confirmed it for everyone else; they all quickly filed out of the main room in a single file line.

"I feel like our boys are up to something, you know," Jeonghan admitted once it was just them left, "I thought that maybe it'd calm down after exams, but it's just any excuse to get us alone now." Seungcheol suddenly felt incredibly small and guilty. Although Jeonghan had no idea that he was involved in their plans and knew exactly what the group was up to, the fact of the matter was still that he was encouraging their behaviour to the point where it was painfully obvious. He didn't know what to say to him in the slightest and resorted to offering an awkward half smile. "I don't know," he lied, and Jeonghan's eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"It's strange because usually they'd tell me what they're up to, but they've been so secretive lately." He seemed to be disappointed and confused as he tried to figure it out, but after a moment his eyes widened a bit. They then moved up to meet Seungcheol's for a moment as he tried to figure out his wording, and his voice came out weak when he finally worked out what he wanted to say. "Do you think that maybe they're..." He stopped completely, seemingly reconsidering his sentence again, then shook his head with a shy smile, "No, that's stupid."

"Please?" Seungcheol could feel his cheeks getting hot. He was already anticipating what was coming, having guessed what Jeonghan was thinking, but he just needed to confirm it. There was a long pause where he tried to decide whether or not to say it, before he finally let out a slow, shaky breath.  
"You know I said a while back that they love and trust you lots? Do you think they might be trying to set us up on a _date_?"

Seungcheol wouldn't have thought much of it if Jeonghan's voice hadn't broken on the final word. His heart immediately started thumping hard in his chest when he heard that crack in his voice, to the point where was certain that he could even hear the elevated beating. They made eye contact for longer than usual, and Jeonghan appeared to have the slightest hint of a blush starting to spread across the apples of his cheeks.

This was his moment to make a move, he figured. It could be the only chance he got in a long time, so he should almost certainly take the opportunity to do it. Seungcheol's eyes flashed down towards his hand, which he slowly moved across the table centimetre by centimetre until his fingers were laid over Jeonghan's. His friend's eyes snapped down to look at their hands for a second, before slowly making their way back up to resume the eye contact again.

From that point, Seungcheol swore he saw Jeonghan's eyes flicker between his eyes and lips a few times. It was a hint, as far as he was concerned, and it felt more natural than anything for him to slowly move closer until they were almost touching. It was a tense moment between them as both anticipated the contact that would inevitably happen. "Would you _like_ to go on a date?" Seungcheol finally breathed, despite them having moved past that already, and Jeonghan's lips twitched into a smile as he started to lean in even closer.

_Thud_

The noise made both boys jump and simultaneously spin around to see Seungkwan caught like a deer in headlights with a bottle of fizzy drink at his feet on the floor. He immediately apologised and rushed back out of the room again, but their moment was over and they were instead left in the awkward, tense aftermath of what had almost been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one moves a bit fast for my liking, but it's another one that's been rewritten all day again. The next few are the golden chapters though so we can probably slow it down a bit and enjoy what's due to come up when it hits, and hopefully the chapter is still tense enough for the positive!!
> 
> Thanks for reading as always!! <3


	16. P for Party

Not even an hour had passed before everyone knew about Seungkwan's screw up.

 _Everyone_ had taken it personally. Seungcheol hadn't even realised the extent of it until he overheard Seungkwan trying to explain it to Hansol. Even his own boyfriend had hissed at him that he'd ruined the opportunity for them, and whilst he would usually get defensive over being scolded like that, he simply hung his head in shame and made an excuse to go to another room for a while.

He felt bad for the kid honestly; it was clear that he was trying to be quiet but had accidentally dropped the drink as he tried to place it down for them to arrange later. He hadn't meant to interrupt, but now he had succeeded in upsetting the entire group apart from Jeonghan and Seungcheol, who had both been more embarrassed by the situation than anything.

It had taken until they started drinking for everyone to start loosening up again. Seungcheol was certain that it was just because him and Jeonghan didn't appear to be uncomfortable with each other after being caught like that, but after a while Hansol's arm moved to wrap around his boyfriend's waist and the rest of the group started to address him in conversation again.

Their situation was left unmentioned for quite a while, although Seungcheol had well anticipated it when it finally came up.

It was only a matter of time really. Whilst Jeonghan had swore that he was only going to have one or two drinks, he ended up having a lot more than planned, claiming when asked that he was under high stress and needed something to take the edge off. Yet, with every drink, he was 'sneaking' more glances in Seungcheol's direction. His hand was slowly creeping closer and closer as time went on, and at one point he made an excuse to let out an exaggerated sigh mid conversation, before promptly leaning his head on Seungcheol's shoulder.

They had only been drinking for around an hour and a half before he was toeing the line between tipsy and drunk. By that point he had moved himself to sit in Seungcheol's lap, and Jisoo had made sure to make eye contact with Seungcheol before mouthing to him that he'd better look after his best friend and not take advantage of his state. Seungcheol made a point of showing that he was keeping his hands to himself, earning an approving nod in response.

"I have a question," Minghao suddenly piped up a short while after Jeonghan had moved to sit on him, right in the middle of an unrelated topic of conversation. It was clear that he was starting to get rather tipsy too, despite having not actually drunk all too much. "Jeonghan and Coups - when are you two going to get together? You almost kissed earlier - everyone wants you to date, even you two." A quick glance around the room confirmed that everyone was staring at Minghao in shock after the sudden input, other than Junhui who seemed more horrified by his boyfriend's comment than anything.

The question had instantly created tension so thick that it could be cut with a knife. Seungcheol was unbelievably glad to be sitting behind Jeonghan at that point, since he couldn't see what his friend's expression was showing about his feelings over the suggestion, although that quickly changed when he replied.

"Really? I think me and Coups should talk about that."

The comment came out dry, and Seungcheol couldn't tell whether it was supposed to be a good or bad thing. He found himself unable to check in fear that it was negative; that in the time that it'd taken him to build up the courage to confess, Jeonghan's feelings for him had diminished. A full minute of silence passed, with everyone in the room simultaneously frozen in anticipation, before Hansol finally stood and motioned for Jeonghan and Seungcheol to copy. "Okay then, I'll save the room from this tension. You two can have that talk right now in my room, and when you've finished you can come back in and continue the party with us." He immediately started in the direction of his room, checking after a few steps that they were following him.

As soon as they hit the room, he slipped them a warning about refraining from touching each other before promptly closing the door. The silence between them continued for a while, with neither particularly knowing what to say, until Seungcheol finally decided to bite the bullet and speak first.

"Jeonghan, I--"  
Jeonghan immediately cut him off with a fingertip to his lips. "You should finish what you started earlier and kiss me." Despite the attempt at being assertive, his eyes were soft and _desperate_ ; as drunk as he was, the words were clearly coming from the feelings that he struggled to express whilst sober. The sweet, affectionate Jeonghan he loved was just masked by the bold Jeonghan from early in the school year.

Seungcheol didn't really want to wait for much longer. He knew that he would back out if they took it slowly, or perhaps they would be interrupted again or there would be another reason to stop. He didn't even care that the kiss was sloppy and unpracticed when he closed the distance. He crushed their lips together hard in a forceful kiss, and Jeonghan clearly didn't mind it as he kissed back just as roughly, his lips parting almost immediately once they made contact.

It had taken ten seconds flat for his tongue to make contact with Seungcheol's lower lip, and the older boy instantly felt his entire body melt when his own tongue met Jeonghan's between their mouthes. It had been far too long since he had been kissed like that; the simultaneous tingles up his spine and pooling in his stomach and dizziness in his head were feelings that he hadn't yet gotten used to. He was certain that it wasn't just the alcohol leaving him feeling like that; his friend clearly knew how to give good kisses and wasn't afraid to take the lead.

Jeonghan ran out of breath too quickly and pulled away too soon, panting heavily as he pressed their foreheads together. His fingers found Seungcheol's hair and knotted around the locks so that he couldn't pull away too far. The sensation of his lips still lingered on Seungcheol's lips; it was something that he genuinely wanted to last forever, as cliche as it felt.

"Seungcheol?"  
"Hm?" His attention focused entirely on his friend again as he was called on, but it seemed as if Jeonghan's own attention had drifted for a moment. "Jeonghan, what is it?"  
"I feel as if it's really forward for me to be asking, since we aren't even in a relationship or anything just yet, and I'm certain that if my parents found out - you know since they get weird about it when you're even in my room - well, they'd probably throw an absolute fit over it..."  
"What is it?" he repeated once his friend's stammers hit a natural pause, but instead of getting to the point, it just started another round of rambling.  
"... I mean, we don't have to do anything, I just thought it would be nice, like it's not a big deal to me personally or anything but I don't know how you feel about that sort of thing; I've never had the chance to--"

This time, Seungcheol's fingertip pressed against Jeonghan's lips. "Just tell me what you want and I'll tell you whether it can happen."

The younger boy was clearly embarrassed by the whole situation. He warily made eye contact for a moment before shifting his gaze to his lap. "I want you to come home with me tonight Seungcheol. Spend the night and cuddle me whilst we sleep," he breathed. There was a slight pause as he dared to lift his eyes to his friend's face again, then he took in a deep breath before continuing. "No sex necessarily; just please make this weekend alone more tolerable by staying over. I want alone time for us without the excuse of school work or my parents constantly checking in on us."

It was genuine and heartfelt, and Seungcheol couldn't help but nod without even thinking it through properly first. "I'll take you home at the end of the party, okay? But for now, we're going back in and enjoying the rest of the night." 

He stole one gentle peck from Jeonghan before standing and leading him back to the main room again. They were just in time to catch Hansol commenting on how lucky they were for his family to decide to go out in the end, since the group made awful drunks. The conversation stopped for just a second when they returned, but when it was obvious that the tension was gone, it picked back up as if they had been there the whole time, much to Seungcheol's relief.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was so much to fit in this chapter; I hit 1500 at 11:35pm and I'm publishing it at 2am since it took so long to comfortably edit it all and ensure that it was readable.
> 
> Honestly I feel like Jeonghan would probably be a relatively cuddly, somewhat emotional drunk, overreacting to little things sometimes and saying what he tries to keep back when he's sober (but also a sleepy drunk once it hits a point too, as if he's not easily tired out as it is)?? On that note, I'm feeling most of the group would be the sort of quiet, emotional, philosophical sort of drunks who talk about the weird things they think about, then the odd few being really obnoxious, loud and really overdramatic, in particular Seungkwan and Minghao
> 
> Also!!!!! As a slight update, we've hit exams season now so there won't be any updates until next Wednesday at the earliest, since that's the date of our last exam for the year, but we'll get it out there as soon as everything has passed!!
> 
> Thank you for reading as always <3


	17. Q for Quiet

The first thing Seungcheol was greeted with the morning after the party was a hard kick to his thigh and a slurred apology.

He could barely open his eyes. The night at Hansol's house had continued with Jeonghan drinking even more and loudly announcing to the group that he was in love with Seungcheol and he thought that they should start dating right there and then. His mood had significantly improved since they shared their first romantic kiss, and despite Seungcheol's protests that he was too drunk to make such a decision, they ended the night in a proper relationship.

They had also ended the night incredibly drunk and in a taxi on the way back to Jeonghan's house. Seungcheol hadn't intended on drinking anywhere near as much as he actually did, but it was a celebration for them both so he let go a little bit. Jeonghan, on the other hand, was drinking non-stop all night, and it got to the point where he couldn't remember his address. Wonwoo hadn't been all too impressed about being woken up from his nap on Hansol's sofa to tell the taxi driver where Jeonghan lived, since no one else actually knew what the street name was.

Getting into the taxi was the last thing Seungcheol could remember from the night. It had been a shock to open his eyes at some ridiculous hour of the morning to see Jeonghan in just boxers trying to clamber over him, as a result. "Jeonghan, are you okay?" he called after him, feeling himself wake up a bit more when he saw his boyfriend stumbling out of the bedroom.  
"Perfectly fine."

He had nothing else to say, so he simply sat up in the bed and waited for him to return. The silence was broken just seconds later by loud coughing and the sound of vomiting, and Seungcheol immediately shot out of the bed. He couldn't even remember where the bathroom was when he hit the hallway, so he ended up having to follow the sound of Jeonghan's wretching in order to find him.

Jeonghan's head snapped towards him once he entered the room, and Seungcheol was caught off guard by how beautiful his boyfriend looked, even though he had been vomiting up everything in his stomach moments beforehand. As rough as he looked with heavy eye bags and his hair stuck to his cheeks, there was something about his tired face that left Seungcheol's chest feeling tight.

Seungcheol was by his side before any more could come out, and sunk to his knees as he grabbed for his hair to pull it out of his way. The gesture came just in time as he vomited again, before letting out a low groan of pain and turning to face him. "Thank you, but you can go back to bed if you want. You look tired," he pointed out, but the older boy was quick to shake his head.  
"I'm holding my boyfriend's hair back." It took a moment, but a look of surprise gradually started to creep onto Jeonghan's face as he seemingly remembered that they were officially dating. That look was quick to change to horror as he realised that the first thing that they hadn't even been dating for a day before Seungcheol was having to hold his hair back whilst he brought the previous night's alcohol up again.

"I can't believe you're seeing me like this already," he admitted with an exasperated laugh, "I bet you're never going to want to kiss me again, huh?" Seungcheol was quick to shake his head as he leant over slowly to press a gently kiss to his temple, and frankly Jeonghan seemed to be more relieved than anything when he realised that he wasn't going to kiss his mouth.  
"I would've never kissed _you_ again if you'd just tasted my vomit," he pointed out with an awkward smile, causing Seungcheol to laugh softly.  
"Do you think you're finished being sick? You seem to have slowed down with it already?" The younger boy simply gave a nod before standing, clearing the toilet of his sick, then going to brush his teeth.

It took a good few minutes for Jeonghan to become satisfied with the results, although in that time Seungcheol was almost certain that he was going to brush his teeth away completely. "I'm never drinking like that again. Promise me that you'll never let me drink like that again," he said finally as he placed his toothbrush back in the medicine cupboard and led his boyfriend back to his bedroom.

They were both asleep again in five minutes flat, with Seungcheol waking first at around one in the afternoon. He was surprised himself at how long he had managed to sleep, but considering that they had rolled into Jeonghan's house at around three o'clock, he supposed that it wasn't too bad. He made a point of carefully freeing himself from his boyfriend's hold before going downstairs to make him lunch. It wasn't going to be anything too heavy, since he _had_ been sick that morning, but it would hopefully be enough to help with his hangover.

He was just in the process of balancing it on a tray when he heard Jeonghan making his way over. They made eye contact when he reached the door, then Jeonghan's eyes shifted to his hands. "I was just about to ask if you wanted food, actually," he admitted with a little smile as he made his way over to Seungcheol's side.  
"It's for you; it should take the edge off your hangover." Jeonghan seemed surprised, but thanked him and pressed an affectionate peck to his cheek.

He was slow to eat the food that had been prepared for him, focusing primarily on the coffee that came alongside it, but once they had finished lunch, Jeonghan made a point of asking how long Seungcheol wanted to stay. They had decided very quickly that a weekend-long arrangement sounded good, since his parents weren't due to get back until Sunday evening, and so Seungcheol was quick to let his parents know that he was going to be out of the house until just before dinner the following day. Their response had come without questioning, luckily, which was perfect seeing as he had yet to tell his parents about his interest in other guys. He was certain that they wouldn't take it too badly, especially since he was relatively far from stereotypes, but it was definitely something that he was going to have to ease them into.

"Is there anything that you'd like to do today?" Jeonghan asked once the kitchen was cleared up, and Seungcheol gave a shrug.  
"Perhaps something that requires little movement whilst we're getting over last night?"  
"Can we sit on the sofa together and watch cartoons, or would that be too childish?"  
"It sounds perfect," Seungcheol admitted, clearing Jeonghan's face of the growing worry immediately. He let out a sigh of relief that he wasn't being judged for his Saturday afternoon hobby.

They made their way to the main room together, and Jeonghan was quick to set the television set up first before they got comfortable. Seungcheol sat down first, whilst Jeonghan chose to sit in his lap so that they could cuddle a bit. It felt strange to be sat in such a loving position with someone for the first time, Seungcheol decided, but at the same time it was nice to have his boyfriend's back pressed against him and his head resting lightly against his shoulder as they started watching the cartoons together. It was comfortable and holding him from behind was giving a feeling of intimacy.

"There's something I didn't quite understand about yesterday," Jeonghan started after a while, during the wait for the next show to start, "If you'd like to hear."  
"Hm?"  
"You seemed confident that I would accept a second kiss back when we were setting the room up together. It's not too like you; either you had a sudden surge of confidence for some reason, or you knew that I liked you back."

Seungcheol hadn't expected to be called out, but he couldn't help but break into a grin as he buried his face in Jeonghan's shoulder. "Would you be upset with me if I told you that I knew you liked me for a few weeks?" A quick glance up confirmed that Jeonghan's jaw was hanging, although his expression wasn't negative.  
"And you let me pine for weeks? Is that why the boys were acting weird? And you _knew_?" He gently punched Seungcheol's shoulder, before playfully turning away from him again with his arms crossed over his chest. 

The playful anger quickly turned to smiles and laughs as Seungcheol began to tickle the back of his knees, just to prove that he wasn't angry at him. "You're not mad," he pointed out with a grin, and Jeonghan gently batted him away.  
"For the moment, Coups; don't test your luck though."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And exams are done!!
> 
> It's awkward bc my laptop screen just completely stopped working this morning and I spent a good 60% of the final exam worried about my chapters, since I hadn't saved four of them - luckily of the four saved, only two got deleted and the ones that remained were updates for pre-existing fics so it worked out okay!!
> 
> The next chapter is also pretty much written up too, since I was using writing as a way of combatting exam stress, so I might be able to post every day until Tuesday now, since there's a bit of extra stuff coming up around then. That would take us to W, if it works out, which would be pretty cool!!
> 
> Thank you staying with me as always, and feel free to make any suggestions if you'd like to!! <3


	18. R for Reality

The rest of the weekend had followed similarly with little bits of affection, sitting in each other's presence, and generally enjoying the freedom of the first few days of their relationship.

However, it hadn't been quite so simple when they got to school on Monday. They had gone to meet with the rest of the group before classes started, to be faced with ten smirks, plus a bonus look of disappointment from Jisoo. Jeonghan was visibly wary when he saw their expressions and quietly asked Seungcheol whether he knew what was going on before they were close enough for them to hear, but he was equally confused about the situation.

"So, did you two have a good weekend?" Seungkwan asked smoothly once they were stood with everyone else, resulting in a few snorts here and there.  
"Is this a trick question or something? What are you all finding funny?" Jeonghan was completely torn between being defensive and being the mother to set them all straight, and it only brought along a few more snickers.

"Well," Seungkwan started, "Hansol went to Coups' house to make sure that he'd gotten back safe on Saturday evening, since he wasn't answering his messages, and his parents said that he wasn't coming home until _Sunday_ evening."  
Jeonghan clearly wasn't too impressed with that answer. He let out an irritated sigh, then reached over to gently thump Seungkwan's forehead to remind him to watch himself before he started edging closer to being disrespectful to his elders.  
"He was staying at my house for the weekend," he replied simply, although apparently it was the wrong answer to give, seeing as it earned simultaneous whistles.

"How many times did you do it?" Minghao piped up without missing a beat. Jeonghan's head immediately snapped in his direction in time to see Seungkwan trying to give him a subtle congratulatory pat.  
"Don't think I won't thump you too, Minghao, we don't talk to our seniors like that even if we are friends."  
"Well, how many?"  
" _None_."  
"Well, you should probably hurry it up before you go to university, because you've missed your chance then."

The discomfort was visible in the faces of all four seniors. Conversation continued around the group, moving on from the topic of Jeonghan and Seungcheol's weekend, but it had abruptly set in for them all that they wouldn't all be in high school together for much longer. It wasn't something that had even come up this year in conversation; Seungcheol had no idea where the other three seniors were planning on attending university, and if he was honest, he had probably put off asking to avoid this exact situation. If they didn't speak about it, the reality that he was going to lose his new friends soon wouldn't set in, so he had put off mentioning the end of the year as much as possible. He wasn't even complaining about the fact that their final exams would be coming up in a few weeks either, since it was more opportunities to spend time with the people who meant the most to him.

He decided on the spot to make an effort to find out what universities they were all going to and find a way to keep contact regardless of the distance.

It had resulted in him running awkwardly after Junhui once the group had disbanded, and frankly Junhui looked horrified when he felt Seungcheol's hand clap onto his shoulder from behind. A similar expression stayed whilst he asked his questions about university, but then gradually grew to be more disappointed than anything. "I'm actually... um... I'm moving back to China for university. I got a place for performing arts back near where I grew up." 

Perhaps starting with Junhui wasn't the best idea, since that bit of information had suddenly hit him harder than anything. Distance didn't mean much, but it was definitely a bigger problem when they lived in a completely different country. "I'll be coming back to Korea afterwards, though. Hopefully as an idol or actor." He supposed that that was good news for a long-term basis, but he was quick to slip his friend a note with his phone number and email address at the next possible opportunity, just so they wouldn't forget and lose contact in the future.

Next up was Jisoo. Seungcheol was quick to approach him between classes, and luckily he seemed to be a lot happier about it than Junhui. "I'm not sure yet; I've been offered places in two of the SKY universities, so I guess there's a chance that we'll be attending the same university. I remember hearing you talking about the ones you applied to with your old friends, and we have overlap on both of our main ones." It was a relief to know that there could be a familiar face around when he moved. If nothing else, it gave him that little bit of motivation to work hard in his exams in order to secure his place, just so that they would be able to share their university experience together. Yet, he'd followed the same contact process just in case, making sure to add on the bottom of the note that he should let him know as soon as he finds out which university he would be attending.

Finally, he met Jeonghan right before lunch.

They both knew that it wasn't going to go well. Jeonghan's eyes were completely avoiding Seungcheol's as he asked the same questions, and his expression was verging on numb. It was as if he was hurting over the fact that it was brought up, especially when Seungcehol mentioned what universities he'd applied for. "We're not going to the same university. I don't know exactly which ones we'll end up going to, but I've chosen smaller ones in comparison to yours. High quality ones, but smaller. SKY isn't for me."

It had hit as hard as he had expected it to. Jeonghan's expression wasn't helping to reduce the disappointment over the fact that they almost certainly wouldn't be living anywhere near each other, nevermind going to the same university. Jeonghan was clearly forcing his smiles as he dared just a second of eye contact, and it frankly made it hurt more that he was struggling with it. "Hey, about what was said earlier, though," he said quietly, "I know what everyone was saying, but I don't want to rush our relationship. Regardless of distance, we should just let things happen in their own time, okay? And besides, my universities are within three hours of here; it's close enough for us to be able to meet and still have a proper relationship." Despite the optimism in his words, Jeonghan's eyes were on the floor again as he started to fiddle with Seungcheol's blazer hem. 

Seungcheol could see that Jeonghan was upset by it, as much as he tried to pretend that it wasn't an issue. As conscious as he was about outing himself, especially so early on in their relationship, he slowly lifted his boyfriend's chin with two fingers before pressing a soft kiss to his lips. It was only for a moment, but it seemed to improve Jeonghan's mood significantly.  
"Grab the others and come through to the cafeteria. I forgot my food today, so I'm going to get my lunch then I'll be over to make the most of our time together." Seungcheol followed it up with another very gentle peck, before giving Jeonghan's arm an affectionate pat, then making his way through the school.

He made sure to speedwalk, since the rest of the group was usually quick to get to their lunchtime meeting spots. The queue was surprisingly long, which wasn't all too great when he was alone, but he figured that it would go down fast enough for him to be finished just after the main group got there. Other than a bit of chatter between friends, it was relatively quiet in the queue for the moment. Seungcheol found himself starting to daydream until he finally felt someone move in close to his ear.

"We saw you kissing Yoon. Always knew you were one of those filthy faggots. Bet your parents are proud of everything you've become, huh?" He knew exactly who it was immediately, and chose not to turn around.  
"I thought we weren't talking," he said simply, in hopes that it'd shut him up, but it only resulted in snide comments.  
"And I thought that you weren't fucking Yoon Jeonghan, but apparently that's happening now, too. Is Jisoo upset about the fact that you've replaced him on Yoon's dick?"

Seungcheol had no idea why he did it. It was the last thing that he'd expected from himself, and it was probably fueled by the fact that he hadn't defended himself or his boys the first time around. It was just rude and not harmful, but he found himself spinning around on the spot, raising his fist, and smashing it into the guy's cheek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... and the jocks are back!!
> 
> They couldn't be dropped that easily, though it's almost the end of the school year for them, so that's probably the end of that legacy too~
> 
> It also means more angst is on the way, and I'm so sorry about that!!
> 
> Thank you for reading as always and feel free to throw pointers for after they get to university, since there's the plots to there!! <3


	19. S for Sexuality

When Seungcheol's parents had been invited to the school to discuss the fact that he and his friends had got into yet another fight, he had felt his entire world crashing down. His first problem was the fact that his boys had watched him not only punch the jock's leader in the face, but then proceed to turn back to get his lunch as if nothing had happened, and they had had to step in when he almost got his ass kicked on the spot. Their parents hadn't been too impressed with the situation either, especially Jeonghan's parents, who had found out that their son hadn't stopped after the first hit when he caught one of the jocks about to hurt Seungcheol whilst he was off guard.

His second problem was the fact that no matter how he looked at it, he was forced to come out to his parents in front of the senior teaching staff. No explanation of what had happened was going to work until he said that he was in a relationship with Jeonghan, since every time he tried to keep that little detail to himself, there was always a question from the senior members of staff about why something was said or why his old friends would think certain things.

It was embarrassing, to say the least. His parents had expressed their feelings about homosexuals in the past, and although he wasn't _technically_ gay, he was still in a same sex relationship nonetheless. They hadn't taken it as badly as he thought they would when he said that they were a couple and that he had had feelings for Jeonghan for a few months prior to their three day romantic relationship, but at the same time, they had still seemed to be disappointed. Disappointed enough to take him out of his remaining classes to discuss the situation in detail with him, but calm enough about it to talk about everything over dinner with Jeonghan and his parents as well.

That was a problem, too.

They had decided to host it at their house, and Seungcheol had had to warn them in advance not to mention the weekend that he had spent at their house, since they didn't believe that couples should be able to sleep at each other's houses. Luckily, they had agreed to keep the secret for him, but it had raised a few questions as to whether anything sexual had come up whilst he was there. Of course, Seungcheol had promised that it hadn't and that had satisfied them for the moment, but he had a feeling from that point that it was going to be a bit of an awkward evening.

His mother had spent longer than necessary cleaning up a house that was already clean, whilst his father made an elaborate dinner. It was as if they were trying to make a point of seeming higher class than their family actually were, and considering that it was just supposed to be a simple dinner to discuss the fact that their sons were dating, it didn't seem to be all that necessary.

At the agreed time, Jeonghan and his parents finally turned up at their house, and it was immediately awkward between them all. Jeonghan had started by introducing his parents to Seungcheol and both of his parents, then Seungcheol had done the same back, but there was clearly a bit of tension between the parents right from the start. After a drawn out pause, they were all invited into the kitchen to start the conversation whilst dinner was finishing up, and Jeonghan's father had made a point of taking his shoes off particularly slowly so that he could watch his son and Seungcheol make their way in behind everyone else.

It had just made it worse that they were all sat so that mothers were staring at mothers, fathers were staring at fathers, and Jeonghan and Seungcheol were caught awkwardly in the middle. "So, you've been together for three days?" Seungcheol's mother started in an attempt to be polite, but Jeonghan didn't know what to do with himself other than cautiously give a quiet 'yes'. His parents seemed to be relatively relieved by the fact that they had only just started out together.  
"So we're assuming that when Seungcheol comes over to study, you're actually studying, right?"  
"Right."

It was _definitely_ as awkward as he'd imagined. Conversation was idle as food was being set up, and when neither boy gave particularly elaborate responses to questions, the parents turned to get to know each other instead. It eased the awkwardness a bit until Seungcheol's parents pointed out that growing up, they would've never been able to tell that their son would be interested in boys. Jeonghan visibly stiffened at the comment, although he tried to play it off until his parents referred to him as being the stereotypical feminine, flamboyant homosexual.

Seungcheol could tell that he wasn't impressed by it. If nothing else, it was probably taking a lot of his strength to not snap a comment back, but somehow he managed to pull through by focusing on his food and taking long sips of his drink when he was struggling to bite his tongue. It was a big thing for him. He had spent the entire school year so far standing up for the fact that sexuality wasn't determined how masculine or feminine an individual was, so to have that conversation come up was a little irritating for him. On top of that, he wasn't that feminine; other than keeping his hair and skin in top condition, he didn't really have any particularly feminine traits. He dressed in masculine attire, had stereotypically more masculine hobbies, other than singing, and was generally very assertive.

It was just a shame that his parents continued to nit-pick everything that was arguably more feminine about him, to the point where Seungcheol was certain that his boyfriend was about to snap. The only thing that seemingly kept him quiet was the fact that his parents were proudly discussing how they handled having an obviously gay child in an attempt to comfort Seungcheol's parents, and it was apparently succeeding in doing so. They had loosened up a lot and were even asking questions, making it seem as if they were genuinely starting to accept the fact that their son could love the person he love without it being anything negative.

By the time they had finished dinner, their parents seemed to be bonding relatively well, to the point where they trusted their sons to clean up the kitchen together whilst they continued their chat over in the main room.

Jeonghan let out a sigh of relief as soon as they left, and it was clear that he wasn't exactly in the best of moods over the comments made, but at the same time he was glad that Seungcheol's parents seemed to be more relaxed about the situation than they had seemed on their way out of the school that afternoon. "Are you okay?" Seungcheol asked as he started to gather the dishes by the sink, and Jeonghan simply gave a slight nod.  
"Not perfect, but okay. I'll live. I just can't believe that we started the day all cheerful, and we've ended it with an emotional meltdown over universities, a fight, a long chat with the heads of the school, then an awkward dinner." He suddenly looked up from the towel that he was holding and glanced around the room, "And I can't believe that this is the context for the first time I've visited your house."

Seungcheol laughed and dabbed a bit of soap on his boyfriend's cheek, then started to wash up. 

"I never did get why you punched him, by the way," Jeonghan continued with an hint of curiosity in his voice. It wasn't particularly something that Seungcheol had wanted to admit to him, especially with the nature of the comments that were made, but he figured that it would've gone around the school by the time they got to class the following morning anyway. After all, the comments were hardly said quietly, and having same sex couples in the school was still considered a novelty. He figured that it would be relatively awkward if Jeonghan was questioned about it and didn't even know that anyone had caught them being affectionate with each other in the hallway.

He told it how it was, choosing not to bother sugar coating it at all. Surprisingly, Jeonghan simply raised his eyebrows as his immediate response, but didn't seem too bothered in general. "I suppose that now it's out, we could maybe hug or hold hands without it coming across as being a huge scandal, so it's sort of worked in our favour."

It was a fair point. With the amount of time they had left at the school, it would be nice to be able to be more open about their relationship, especially in front of peers.


	20. T for Touches

The end of the school year came quicker than they had expected. Jeonghan and Seungcheol had been spending the final few weeks of the year being more affectionate with each other without being too overboard with the public displays of affection, and in the process only received a few little comments in the process. Seungcheol guessed that for the most part, the news had travelled around fast about him punching one of the jocks, and so very few were willing to risk stepping over the line with him now. It was nice, as far as he was concerned, for them to be able to be themselves around school just as everyone else in the group was.

Their exams had gone particularly well, with a fair amount of stress but everyone studying enough to get the grades they were hoping for, and they had gotten their results to find that Jisoo and Seungcheol were going to be attending the same university, whilst Jeonghan was attending one within around two hundred miles. The group had thrown a leaving party for Junhui as summer started, since he was leaving early in order to spend the summer with his family in China, which had ended in an emotional exchange between him and Minghao near the end. Even Wonwoo had seemed to be getting a bit teary-eyed when he watched Minghao, who had managed to stay positive up until the end, suddenly burst into tears without warning as the realisation set in that they would be apart for at least four years. It had ended with the first kiss the group had witnessed between them in the two years that they had been in a relationship, bringing up the positivity a bit in the process.

It was that summer that really brought to surface the difficulties for Seungcheol and Jeonghan, though. Whilst the rest of the group had tried to see each other as much as possible before some of them moved to their final year of high school and the eldest boys moved to university, they had found themselves trying to see each other privately without seeming too rude for not meeting with everyone else as much.

On top of that, whilst Seungcheol's parents were okay with his boyfriend staying over whenever he wanted, Jeonghan's parents weren't anywhere near as comfortable with the idea, so they had to make arrangements around it. Considering that they were comfortable with keeping the bedroom door open at all times when Seungcheol was visiting, it seemed to be a bit too cautious for them to prevent him from staying for the night, but it was more awkward than anything that they had to sneak around to have Jeonghan stay at Seungcheol's house for the night. 

Their summer started out with coffee dates and spending warm afternoons in parks together, but the closer it got to the beginning of their university life, the more time they ended up spending in more private places. Less subtlety and more physical contact; most of their time was spent cuddling against each other as they chatted or watched movies together. After all, there was only so long that they could spend that time holding each other before they had weeks apart from each other, especially with Jeonghan moving out of the city.

Their relationship had stayed very affectionate up until around two weeks before Jeonghan was supposed to be leaving. It had been a bit of a shock to Seungcheol when he began to get a little more quiet around him.  
"Is everything okay?" he finally asked as he ran a hand through his boyfriend's hair, and Jeonghan had pretended that it was all fine for a while before finally piping up with his answer.

"I know I said just a few months ago that we should take it slow, but I keep thinking about it and..." Jeonghan trailed off, but Seungcheol found himself understanding exactly where he was heading with it.  
"You're ready to go further? Anything in particular?" he asked quietly, and the younger boy hummed a little as he tried to decide what he was actually looking for.  
"Maybe a bit of touching above clothes and kissing, if you're comfortable with that. Something to leave us on a good note and has us looking forward to the next time we meet in person."

It felt weird to have that bit of physical intimacy with Jeonghan. As much as they were adults at eighteen years, they had a strange relationship where they were both the parents but also the kids. It was as if they'd both grown up fast between their second and third years at high school, and even more so over the summer. Sure, they hadn't really been together for all that long, which probably wasn't helping with how nervous it was making Seungcheol, but there was something about the way that Jeonghan was speaking so softly to him as well.

They'd kissed enough for that to come naturally to them, but the way that Jeonghan had parted his thighs for his boyfriend to crawl between them was something new. It had started out innocent enough, but soon Jeonghan's hands slowly slipped down Seungcheol's back until they rested on his rear and squeezed gently. Seungcheol found himself letting out a surprised grumble against his lips as he felt the hands cup and grope at his backside a bit, whilst Jeonghan simply gave a suck to his lower lip. He was easily finding Seungcheol's soft spots and getting to them with ease, and it was slightly intimidating to have him hitting them so easily when he had absolutely zero experience with touching other guys.

It had taken quite a while, but Seungcheol finally built up the confidence to slip a hand up Jeonghan's inner thigh as he moved across to gently suck and nibble at his ear, and the way that his boyfriend moaned softly into his ear was enough to leave the older boy with shivers running down his spine. The noise was soft and sweet and it left an unusual softness in the pit of Seungcheol's stomach when he heard it. It was a sound that he'd never really heard pass Jeonghan's lips before, but as much as he wanted to hear it again, it had stopped him completely in his tracks for a moment.

"Are you feeling too nervous?" Jeonghan breathed against the side of his face, but Seungcheol simply moved his hand up to squeeze the front of his trousers in the heat of the moment, drawing another noise from his throat. His boyfriend clearly took it as an acceptable answer as his knees spread even further apart and his hips raised to meet the hand. Seungcheol decided that it was going to be something that he was going to miss, even though he was only just getting to experience for the first time now. He was prepared to do anything to hear those noises again, to feel that touch of intimacy between them, and it had resulted eventually in him grinding his hips down against Jeonghan's in slow, rough motions.

It had continued until finally Jeonghan buried his face into his neck and whispered that he wanted to be cuddled again before it could escalate too far between them. Seungcheol hadn't realised how worked up they had been getting until he caught how heavy his breathing had gotten, and he could feel Jeonghan's chest heaving underneath him. He tried not to put too much weight on Jeonghan's body, despite knowing that he was probably strong enough to support him, and instead supported himself on his elbows and knees whilst he snuggled his face into his boyfriend's neck as he tried to calm himself down again.

"I'm going to miss you a lot," Jeonghan admitted with a sigh once he'd had enough time to steady his heart rate again, "And part of me is feeling dumb for not wanting to stay in Seoul like everyone else."  
"You shouldn't feel bad for going somewhere better suited to you, and you shouldn't have to feel like you have to stay somewhere for family or friends." The younger boy pursed his lips together a bit as he realised that his intended meaning had been figured out, and simply gave a little nod in response.  
"I just suppose it's unusual, since I'm not going to one of the big universities and it's not a specialised one, and not a lot of people would be willing to move away for that sort of thing."

It was understandable, considering that he was leaving his life in Seoul behind completely, but at the same time his future was the most important thing. Seungcheol made sure to remind him that it was going to work out in the long run, and whilst Jeonghan seemed to be a bit hesitant to agree to start with, he finally gave a nod of understanding when Seungcheol informed him that they would all support him no matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've spent all day working on this chapter and it was pretty difficult to get it done honestly, like I can see where I want things to go but not how to execute them at the moment
> 
> The next two or three should hopefully be a lot smoother, though, but it's hitting the start of university for the older boys, which should be resulting in a few little difficulties for everyone for the next few chapters, but we'll try not to be too angsty
> 
> As always, thank you for the comments and feel free to give any suggestions!! <3


	21. U for University

The final few days before Jeonghan moved away for university had been tough for everyone. Seungcheol was certain that the only thing that kept him from crying in front of everyone on his boyfriend's final day was the fact that they had arranged a mid-month video call, plus they were planning on meeting in person at the start of their second month. Their parting had been as emotional as Junhui and Minghao's when they were alone, though, with Jeonghan clinging to him for longer than necessary, and Seungcheol had been fine until he could feel his shirt getting damp underneath where his boyfriend's face was resting. The little sniffles as he whispered that he loved him left a lump rising in his throat and a building pressure behind his eyes until he finally felt the tears starting to roll down his cheeks.

Given how much everything had changed for him, Seungcheol hadn't expected to settle into his university course half as quickly as he had done. It was probably helped a lot by the fact that he and Jisoo had met up on an almost daily basis, both between and after classes, and he was still close enough to home to avoid getting too homesick. There was even the opportunity to visit his high school friends if they were all freed up enough to do so, although obviously it wasn't going to be a frequent occurence given that they were supposed to be all focusing on grades for the most part. He was incredibly interested in his course, and although there was a lot of work involved, it was absolutely worth the time and effort that he was putting in.

It gave him a lot to talk about when him and Jeonghan finally had the opportunity to video call each other. His excitement to discuss it was almost bubbling over right up until the point where Jeonghan answered the call, at which point it immediately reduced back down to a simmer. It was an unusual feeling for him; they had only spent around three weeks apart in total, but seeing his boyfriend's face on his laptop screen had left his chest feeling tight. He missed him a lot already and he hadn't really had the chance to think about that until that point, considering everything that was happening around him, but now he was lost for words as he sat gazing at the boy he loved.

"Hey," Jeonghan smiled as he pulled one of his stuffed teddies onto his lap and squeezed it tight. His tone was laced with a hint of shyness that made him smile.  
"Hey. How've things been for you so far?"  
"Just busy really. What's happened for you since you started?"

Jeonghan was observant as always. Despite the way that Seungcheol's emotions had calmed down, he had still noticed the excitement that Seungcheol had started the call with, and suddenly that excitement returned as he began to give a run down of his fortnight He'd discussed absolutely everything, starting with his dorm and eventually finishing with the way that he had started to work towards his first assignments already. He was absolutely certain that he was going to keep on top of it this year, and Jeonghan had expressed how impressed he was that his boyfriend was doing so well already.

"Would you like to tell me about your week now?" Seungcheol finally asked once he had finished, and he immediately noticed the slight faulter in his boyfriend's smile as soon as he asked. Yet, he tried to play it off straight away with a laugh and a bright smile, as he answered just a moment later.  
"Oh yeah, it's... it's all great. All fine. Not much has really happened, if I'm honest. Just classes and sleeping. You know how tired I get."

Seungcheol was torn between asking him and changing the topic. For the most part, his boyfriend tried to vague when he wasn't ready to talk about something; he had reacted that was on a few occasions in the past, such as when his parents were toying with the idea of getting a divorce over summer. On the other hand, though, he didn't want to seem as if he wasn't observant enough to notice how his boyfriend was clearly upset about something, and he most definitely wanted to be there for him as Jeonghan had been for him when he had expressed his excitement for his university experience so far.

He'd eventually settled for hitting the middle ground as best as possible by keeping to the same topic but not pushing that bit too far. "And how's your dorm? Is it comfortable?"

The last thing he expected was for his boyfriend to crack at the second question. Jeonghan's smile had immediately become uneasy, although he tried to keep it up for a while longer even as tears were clearly pricking at the corners of his eyes. Seungcheol felt bad, of course, as he guessed that he had hit a bad topic overall, and so he quickly tried to comfort his boyfriend in hopes that it would stop him from getting too emotional over whatever was upsetting him.

"Hey hey, Jeonghan, cuddle your bear for me, okay? Do you want to talk about what's wrong?" The younger boy's head flopped forward so that he could bury his face into his teddy's fur until he could calm his tears enough to talk without erupting into sobs, but when he lifted his head back up to look at his screen again, Seungcheol could feel his heart breaking. There was a sadness in his boyfriend's eyes, made worse by the puffiness that came hand in hand with the tears.

"I think I'm just homesick," he admitted as he tried desperately to stay composed, "Everyone is talking about how their families live in the city or somewhere within an hour's bus journey, whilst I'm here with no one and an hour's _train_ journey to see everyone."  
"I wish I could hold you right now," Seungcheol whispered as sat watching him. He barely knew what to say and he was almost certain that this wasn't the right thing, since it was probably just making it harder for his boyfriend to handle it, but it was the painful truth of the matter. Whilst he knew that having a long distance relationship during their time at university was a possibility, seeing as they were going to travel to wherever the best universities for their course were, the fact that he couldn't hold Jeonghan after having a year of being close enough to touch him was quite frankly frustrating. "Is there anything that I can do to help you get through it?"

"You can visit me," he said in the most light-hearted way possible, considering that he was clearly hurting a lot. A hand flashed up to dry his cheeks as he let out a little laugh again and made a comment about how he was feeling so pathetic for crying over something so small.

As much as he was probably joking, Seungcheol found himself warming to the idea quickly. Sure, they had agreed to leave it for a month before they met, but at the same time it was clear that his boyfriend wasn't quite settling in as well as he was. It was probably incredibly hard for him to keep up the motivation to stay, especially seeing as the homesickness had hit so early on in the academic year.

"I'll come over," he agreed with a smile, earning a look of surprise in response.  
"Are you serious? Can I pay for your train ticket?" As much as Seungcheol argued that he didn't need help paying for his train ticket to visit, Jeonghan had been absolutely insistent on it until finally he went to a rail website and booked a ticket for him, before simply sending the reservation details over.

It had clearly been a breath of relief for Jeonghan to have Seungcheol so ready to visit him as soon as he asked, and his tears soon ceased as he appeared to be more relaxed in the conversation. He had soon started to open up about his experiences a bit more as he realised that it was even okay to discuss the more negative sides to his experience so far, and of course Seungcheol was there to give him the support he was clearly in need of as he ranted about everything that had happened in his few weeks away from home.

The call had lasted several hours until finally Jeonghan was smiling more than anything, and it finally finished when he noted that he had a practical session in the early morning. As much as they didn't want to say goodbye, it was easier knowing that they would be seeing each other again the following weekend, and it had definitely gotten a lot off Jeonghan's chest when they eventually wished each other a good night before finally hanging up their call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I couldn't help but add a little bit of a sting in there, seeing as big life events are rarely smooth sailing in the end~
> 
> We're still trying to decide on the ending, which is a bit of a bother since it might dictate what happens in the next few chapters a bit, but it'll hopefully work out okay in the end and we'll just see how it goes!!
> 
> Thank you for reading as always and feel free to drop any ideas or suggestions in the comments!! <3


	22. V for Visit

It was difficult to get to the end of the week, knowing that Jeonghan was struggling so much already. They had made a point of having phone calls on an almost daily basis throughout that week, despite how busy Seungcheol had been with his studies already, even if barely anything had happened for either of them since their video call. Seungcheol was glad to be signing out of the university on Friday afternoon and taking the first possible train over to him as a result. It had taken too long, in his opinion, especially since he had been unable to get a fast train over and had therefore had to spend an extra fifteen minutes on the slower train.

He had been happy to see his boyfriend waiting for him at the station, and as soon as they were close enough, they had hugged tightly with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever.

It was strange. Whilst Seungcheol had missed Jeonghan a lot, the extent of it hadn't quite hit until he felt his boyfriend holding him back. He inhaled deeply, admiring the fact that he had continued using the same shampoo and soaps that he had used back in high school. It was something familiar and comforting, and it was the nicest feeling to bury his face in the skin of Jeonghan's neck. For a moment it felt as if he was the one who had initiated their meeting, since he was clinging tighter and trying to find home in Jeonghan's hold, but as he moved to pull away he found that Jeonghan held him a bit tighter instead of allowing distance to be made.

"I didn't think that four weeks apart would be so difficult," Jeonghan whispered when he finally loosened his grip, "I've been so lonely." He finished with a laugh, although it was clear that his emotions were running high. They moved away, just enough to be able to look into each other's eyes, and the younger boy's lips immediately twitched into a smile. It was nice to see how much happier he seemed in comparison to how he had been when they had video called, and it was clear that his worries about being isolated had quickly drained away now that they were together again.

Jeonghan had been a lot more talkative as they walked back to his dorm together. They had made their way straight up to his room, discussing their plans for the weekend as they did so, but upon walking in Jeonghan froze completely before turning to Seungcheol with an arguably disappointed expression. "I hope you don't mind, but my roommate is in at the moment," he announced as he invited his boyfriend into the room, and Seungcheol entered the room quietly to find himself face to face with a boy who seemed to be relatively shocked to see him there.

Introductions were brief, with his roommate seeming to be relatively stand-offish as he gave the minimal possible response to everything that was said to him. It quickly grew awkward as the three boys were left glancing between each other, until Jeonghan finally suggested that maybe they should leave Seungcheol's bag in the room whilst they go for a slow walk around the campus. Of course, Seungcheol was quick to agree to it and quickly stuffed his bag under his boyfriend's bed before allowing himself to be led back out of the room again.

"We'll sit in the park nearby," Jeonghan announced as they started on their way down the stairs, "He's just awkward and it's uncomfortable being around him."  
"How so?" Seungcheol asked, and his boyfriend let out a little sigh.  
"I've been trying to get to know him for the entire past month, but he refuses to say more than a few words to me. And I know he's not just shy, because he brings a new friend from his course home almost every night and they spend hours talking with each other; he just doesn't seem to like me for whatever reason."

Eventually they made it to the park area and sat on the grass together up against a tree as Jeonghan's hand slowly found its way over to wrap around Seungcheol's fingers.They remained quiet for a short while, with neither boy feeling as if they absolutely had to talk. By the time they'd spent around an hour outside together, they were sat so that their thighs were touching and Jeonghan's head was resting against his boyfriend's shoulder, whilst Seungcheol idly caressed his hair with his spare hand. It was a comfortable quiet that had lasted for while until finally Jeonghan began to ask about how life was back in Seoul.

It hadn't been anything particularly interesting, if he was being honest, but he guessed that it would make his boyfriend feel somewhat better if he were to give the few bits of niche news that he had found out about their home city more recently. He made sure to tie off the loose ends that had been left when Jeonghan moved away; the cat who lived in the local cafe had her eighth litter of kittens, the couple who always argued in the park they went to together over summer finally started seeing other people, and there was a group of boys who went to their high school who were planning on forming an idol group.

Jeonghan had initially seemed interested in all of the news that he was receiving, but after a while it was clear that he was starting to get a little bit distracted by something. Seungcheol had followed his gaze to see that he was staring into the emptiness of their grassy surroundings, and he trailed off as he tried to figure out what his boyfriend was looking at. It took a few moments, but the younger boy finally realised that there was complete silence, and he immediately snapped back around to face him with an apologetic smile.

"Oh, sorry, I got a bit distracted there. Do you mind that it's drizzling, or would you like to go inside?" Seungcheol went to say that he wasn't that bothered by it but he was barely half way through his sentence when he noticed that the rain was quickly getting heavier, and so he was left trailing off instead. A quick glance back to Jeonghan was enough to confirm that they should start making their way back to the dorm, and so they both started to speed walk back through the park in silence.

The rain grew heavier still as they walked together, enough to easily soak their hair and clothes after just a minute. Jeonghan suddenly froze on the spot and broke into a grin, and he immediately pushed Seungcheol's hair back with a hand as he leant over to kiss him hard on the mouth. It was held for just a moment before the older boy slowly drew from the kiss and squeezed his hand again. 

"We're going to catch cold if we wait outside any longer," Seungcheol pointed out as he gently tugged his boyfriend in the direction of the dorm. Despite giving a little whine of protest, Jeonghan accepted his attempt to lead him back, and they both started to run as the rain started to get heavy enough to blur the image of the university dorms ahead of them. Shoes were squelching with every step and they were already so wet that they could have quite easily been mistaken for having just fallen into a swimming pool.

By the time they got to Jeonghan's room again, they were forced to waddle with their clothes clinging tightly to their bodies. It was a relief that his roommate was back out of the room again, seeing as Seungcheol was desperate to peel his clothes off as soon as he was out of the doorway. In just a moment, they were both leaving their clothes in a pile on the floor next to the bed.

It was at that moment that it hit them that that was the first time that they had seen each other completely bare and exposed. They were facing away from each other for the moment, but Jeonghan cautiously glanced over his shoulder at his boyfriend. Seungcheol searched for something, anything, to cover himself, but his boyfriend turned to face him fully before slowly looking him up and down.

"Are you uncomfortable?" he asked as he moved a little closer.  
"I just don't want to make _you_ feel uncomfortable," Seungcheol admitted quietly, daring to move his hands back to his sides and earning a shy smile in the process. There was a flirty glint in Jeonghan's eyes as he continued moving forward until they were finally chest to chest.  
"Instead we could maybe take advantage of the fact that we're like this already. Cuddle a bit under the covers; enjoy being close to each other whilst we have the chance to do so. If you'd be happy to do that, of course."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a subtle bit of hinting, but I'll be leaving it at that since we needed a little bit of fluffy boyfriend stuff for a while, but I'm not 100% sure how long the cute stuff will last, seeing as there's only a few chapters left~
> 
> Thank you all for reading and leaving comments as always <3


	23. W for Weekend

Seungcheol had made three big mistakes in his life.

The first had been peeing his uncle's bedroom trash can and blaming it on his cousin when he was seven. It had been woven and he had simply figured that it was better than peeing all over the floor on the way to the bathroom, but it had caused a huge mess, he was quickly rumbled, and he was scolded for weeks over it. The second had been getting involved with the jocks for obvious reasons. It had been six years of constant psychological discomfort for him, and he absolutely didn't want to find himself in that sort of situation again as long as he lived.

The third was, apparently, discussing his weekend with Jisoo when they met up on the Monday after his visit to see Jeonghan.

He'd forgotten to tell him that he had been going to visit Jeonghan, to start with. Whilst Jisoo did appreciate the fact that they were in a relationship, he had immediately gone quiet when he was told about it and seemed to be a bit upset. A half hour of prying finally revealed that he was feeling a bit jealous over it, since Jeonghan had been his best friend since junior school and he was missing him enough to visit with a moment's notice if he knew that he was feeling homesick. Sure, Jeonghan was almost definitely going to tell his boyfriend when he had a problem, but at the same time he always told Jisoo when he had issues so it felt uncomfortable knowing that he had kept something so big from him.

His attitude over the entire situation only worsened when Seungcheol slipped up and accidentally revealed the sorts of activities that they had done whilst they were together. "Wait wait wait. You two had _sex_ in his university dorm, Seungcheol?" he asked in disbelief as he started to piece the little hints together. Seungcheol was immediately smacked with worry when Jisoo used his full name instead of his nickname, especially since his expression was starting to show more disgust than anything. He tried to explain that his roommate had been out at the time and it had happened in the heat of the moment, since they had already been cuddling naked in his bed after a storm, but it absolutely did not comfort Jisoo in the slightest, as much as Seungcheol had hoped it would.

"This is just an opinion, but I really don't think you should be doing that sort of thing just yet. You haven't been together for long at all, and it's not exactly a good thing for you to be doing whilst you're at university," he pointed out dryly. It was clear that he was gradually getting more and more irritated over the situation, and as much as Seungcheol tried to diffuse the situation, he was simply just making everything worse.

"We might not have been together for too long, but we're grown adults so I guess we can make the decision to do it if we want to." He didn't mean to sound patronising and rude, but Jisoo's eyebrows immediately furrowed as he stared at his friend.  
"I'm sorry, but I don't think you know Jeonghan and his beliefs as well as you think you do. I've been his best friend for longer than you've acknowledged his existence, so please don't act as if you know him better than I do."

Seungcheol had immediately regretted the way he had said it as soon as it came out, but the more defensive Jisoo was getting, the harder he was finding it to avoid snapping back at him with dry remarks and those little comments that were very clearly getting under his skin. For the most part, Jisoo was a true gentleman and maintained the calm upperhand in arguments, yet Seungcheol was quickly starting to find that it was easy enough to get under his skin when it came to discussing Jeonghan.

"Could you please explain to me why it's a big deal, then?"  
"I'm not sure if you're aware but Jeonghan was a virgin before you came along, and whilst it may not be a big deal nowadays, it was still a pretty important thing to him," he hissed, "He hadn't _had_ a serious boyfriend before you came along. And okay, it probably isn't a big deal to you, but growing up he said that he was worried about rushing into it and having a boy break his heart soon after. He wanted it to be with his life partner after a significant amount of time, and whilst I do love you a lot, Seungcheol, I don't quite think you're hitting the mark for it just yet."

Seungcheol didn't know what to say in response. It probably wasn't intended to suggest that he wasn't good enough for his boyfriend, but that was definitely how it was coming across. He didn't know whether to take it personally or not, especially considering how much he genuinely loved and respected Jeonghan. Had his boyfriend told him that he wanted to put off physical intimacy, he absolutely wouldn't have driven it forward, but seeing as _Jeonghan_ was the one to initiate it, it was hardly fair to suggest that Seungcheol was pushing it onto him. After all, if Jeonghan was directly asking for it, he wasn't prepared to reject him just to keep Jisoo happy.

His attempt at arguing that point had resulted in his friend politely asking that he didn't go near him until he was ready to apologise and fully understand what exactly he did wrong. Seungcheol didn't even have the opportunity to retaliate before Jisoo turned on his heel and walked away in the other direction, and he knew from that moment that it was going to be difficult to get back on his good side.

He'd spent most of the rest of the day trying to think of ways to fix what he had said, since having drawn out arguments with friends was probably the last thing he wanted, but frankly the more he thought about it, the less he actually understood where he was going wrong. Whilst obviously his tone wasn't necessarily the best and he was probably a bit too defensive over comments that weren't supposed to be mean, he didn't actually feel as if he had done anything wrong by spending the weekend with his boyfriend and allowing their relationship to become more physical.

Of course, it was inevitable that after a while, his boyfriend was going to call him to ask about the situation. As always, Jisoo was going to call him and rant about how upset he was with the situation, and Jeonghan would have no choice but to talk to him about it and get the story from both angles. It was the regular protocol for all group arguments that had come up, although whilst usually it would be brought to his attention by whoever called first, Seungcheol wasn't prepared to upset Jisoo any more than he already had by calling his best friend first.

"Could you tell me why, from your perspective, you aren't talking with Jisoo anymore?" Jeonghan asked as soon as Seungcheol answered his phone. Seungcheol immediately started to explain the situation to him, whilst his boyfriend remained completely silent the entire time, and then finally when he finished he was greeted with a sigh.  
"I tried to argue in your defence, seeing as it was as much my fault as it was yours, but he informed me that your attitude had been really shitty, Coups, and I can't have you speaking to him like that."

Jeonghan's tone was suggesting that he was more disappointed than anything, and it broke Seungcheol's heart. Obviously he couldn't really argue with that, seeing as he hadn't necessarily been the nicest when he was making his points, but Jeonghan was the last person he wanted to disappoint. There was a long silence in which he didn't know what to say and his boyfriend was clearly waiting for an answer, but eventually the younger boy finally gave another sigh.  
"Well, Jisoo isn't talking to me either now, so I would really appreciate it if you could fix everything with him before you contact me again. Goodbye, Coups."

Initially Seungcheol thought that his boyfriend would be joking, but as he opened his mouth to retaliate, he heard a beeping in his ear to say that the call had been cut off. He felt a wave of fear wash over him and immediately tried to call him back, but Jeonghan made a point of cutting off the call each time after just the first ring in order to show him that he was serious about his decision.

He was left sitting in complete silence, knowing full well that his friend wouldn't be walking to him for at least a few days until his mood had improved enough for them to talk through it all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd just like to apologise for bringing in another bit of angst, seeing as we're getting close to the end and all, but it seemed to follow on pretty nicely from comments and past chapters so we just rolled with it
> 
> If you feel personally victimised, please feel free to comment and I'll slip you a nice bit of fluff in response to your comment when I have the time to answer messages (since the current work schedule is around 8am to 6pm every day until Saturday, by which point the fic should be finished completely)
> 
> Thank you for reading as always <3


	24. X for Xu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With regards to the last chapter, there's been a few comments about the argument that I'd just like to clarify bc whilst I thought I was being clear with it, I've probably left most of it way way too implicit;
> 
> * It's pretty much universally standard for guys to talk about sex with each other once you get to know them a bit; even in the list of Korean profanities that I've been studying for (cough) research reasons, there's a big emphasis on phrases like "how far have you gone with him/her?", and so I do feel like it would be relatively normal for Jeonghan and Jisoo to have discussed it at least a bit, having known each other since they were probably around 10-12 years old or something in this AU??
> 
> * On the topic of Jeonghan getting fussy and cutting off the call, he figures that it would be better to stay out of it and encourage them to get it sorted as quickly as possible, since he's got his own problems to deal with and listening to them both getting irritated with each other tends to promote distancing and increase the time it takes to actually apologise, generally
> 
> * Jisoo's biggest issue is the fact that Cheol was getting a bit too defensive and not really choosing his words wisely, leading to him blowing everything out of proportion and taking an irk from finding out that Cheol had visited his best friend at university before he had, to him getting disproportionately upset over the fact that Jeonghan hadn't mentioned that his relationship had taken new steps and irrationally believing that his lack of mentioning a potential positive life event may be down to Cheol pushing it and Jeonghan being embarrassed by his actions
> 
> * In general, it was supposed to be more like everyone was sort of in the wrong to a degree; Jisoo for getting too worked up over it and lashing out about little things, Cheol for continuing to rile him up knowing that he was upset about the situation already, and Han for isolating himself completely when they could've probably used his help to work things out quicker and see it from an outside perspective.
> 
> Sorry that it needed to be clarified, but hopefully the details of this chapter clears up any final rough spots from the last chapter

They hadn't spoken in a week and a half when action was finally taken.

It had been awful. Seungcheol had seen Jisoo on multiple occasions around their university, and he had simply turned his head away completely once it became obvious that he had noticed him. He had wanted more than anything to fix things, but at the same time he was consciously stubborn about the entire situation. Sure, he had been a bit harsh and over defensive, but he still didn't feel like he should have to apologise for it all. He was somewhat childish, in those respects, since he knew that it would help his case to apologise first, yet at the same time he couldn't bring himself to do it when he knew that they were both in the wrong for being so petty.

The longer it went on, the more he was thinking about it. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted it to be over. It had taken a lot of strength for him to finally decide that he wanted it to be over, since passive-aggressive from Jisoo was arguably worse than him being visibly upset, and as much as it took a stab at his pride to apologise he figured that it would just be easier to do so over the way that he spoke to him. He had planned it for the end of the week, making sure to determine a set of steps that he was going to be taking in order to make sure that both ended up apologising.

The day finally came for him to go to find Jisoo and set everything straight. He had dressed in something relatively smart, primarily due to his own need to look as if he meant business, before making his way out of his room and down towards the foyer. He had been trying to be more attentive than usual, just in case Jisoo was around, but he barely hit the foyer before he found himself getting distracted by a boy with bright red hair squatting by the bottom of the stairs. He hadn't seen anyone with hair like that in the dorms before, and he was left curious as he made his way down and tried to sneak a look at the boy's face as he passed. He had just hit the bottom step when the boy dragged his eyes away from his phone to look at him and--

"Minghao?"

The younger boy's mouth immediately twitched into a grin as he stood up fully and hopped forward a little to hug Seungcheol tightly. "You're awake later than I expected," he pointed out as he moved away, "I'm almost certain that Jisoo was up a good hour ago."

Minghao obviously caught the slight twitch in his friend's expression when Jisoo's name was mentioned, and his eyebrows immediately shot up. "I'm actually here about that, you ass. Jeonghan is pretty upset about the fact that you two still haven't made up after almost two weeks, and it's my job to talk sense into you both."  
Seungcheol was a bit surprised by it. "Not to sound rude or anything, but it's not really your responsibility to sort it out. It's between us two and we need to sort it between us."

"I decided to make it my responsibility." He simply scrunched his nose up as he grabbed for Seungcheol's wrist and started to lead him out of the building.  
"Where are we going?"  
"I'm taking you to get coffee so that we're not discussing it in the middle of the dorms."

Seungcheol couldn't really argue with that. After all, it would be relatively awkward to dig up the dirt on his interpersonal relationships where everyone in their dorm would be able to listen in. He remained quiet about the whole situation until they finally reached the coffee shop, and Minghao made a beeline straight for the tills to order their drinks. Both opted for a simple espresso, before wedging themselves right in the corner of the shop.

"Right, so could you explain to me again what happened because Jeonghan's timeline was a bit everywhere."  
"Jeonghan spoke to you about it?" Seungcheol was a bit surprised, frankly, especially since his boyfriend was closer to some of the other boys over Minghao. The younger boy seemingly understood exactly what he meant by it and let out a little sigh.  
"Well, he spoke to Soonyoung and Seokmin about it, but all of us in the group are worried about you guys so I'm helping out. You know, since the third years have their deadlines to work on now."

He guessed that it was fair enough. As much as he didn't really want to spread the details around the group, he trusted that Minghao wouldn't tell anyone who didn't need to know and figured that Jisoo and Jeonghan would have probably told him what had happened beforehand anyway. He went into all of the details, earning just a concerned sigh in response for a few seconds before Minghao could find the words to reply.  
"Wow, that's petty as hell."

Seungcheol didn't even know how to respond to the comment. It was true and very, very blunt, giving minimal room for him to even try to justify it if he wanted to.

"The problem here is that you don't understand how things change until you take a step away. You don't have unlimited time together. Like with Jun and I; we were in love with each other back in middle school, really really in love with each other, but there was always an excuse as to why it couldn't happen until we realised that it wouldn't last. We argued, but we learned to fix it quick because you never know when you'll lose each other."  
"But that's a romantic relationship," Seungcheol pointed out, sighing, "It doesn't work for me and Jisoo, since we're going to the same university and we were just good friends."

"I'm getting to it, I'm getting to it! For starters, we _are_ best friends as well as boyfriends. Secondly, we're sort of like you, Jisoo and Jeonghan. Soonyoung is our friend, he's a bit closer with me, and he's been caught in between us a few times. It's not fair, you know? He's watched us arguing because Jun wouldn't hold my hand in public. Jun's seen me and Soonyoung arguing because he got bratty over Seokmin having a girl in his house. I've watched Jun and Soonyoung arguing because Jun tried to justify not coming out to his parents and Soonyoung wasn't having it."

Seungcheol felt his stomach sink. Their argument sounded exactly how Minghao was describing his past arguments with his closest friends. Stepping back, he guessed that Jisoo was upset over the fact that he hadn't seen his best friend in a month and it already felt as if their friendship had changed from one where they would spend a load of time together and share everything with each other, to one where he was inviting others to stay with him first and telling them his deepest feelings instead. Jeonghan was obviously trying to stay out of the situation but wasn't happy with the pettiness, so he wanted to cut himself off as a neutral point to encourage them to talk again. He personally felt as if it wasn't Jisoo's business whether they were sleeping together, visiting each other or calling to discuss Jeonghan's feelings.

They all probably had a lot to deal with mentally and emotionally anyway, seeing as their education was coming to be even more important in university, so it was probably unnecessarily blown out of the water anyway. Seungcheol quickly decided on the spot that he would scrap his elaborate plan to make Jisoo apologise too. He would just prefer to get his bit out of the way and allow Jisoo to do the same without feeling like he's being guilted into an apology.

"I'll go and apologise to him now, then. Will you come with me?"  
Minghao's face broke into a huge grin, and his eyes wandered towards the window next to them. "No need; I picked this coffee shop for a reason and chose this time for a reason. Been studying his daily habits carefully, and-- Oh look, it's Jisoo. Now is your time to shine!"

Well, damn. Seungcheol hadn't had the chance to mentally prepare himself, but he stood from his chair regardless and started on his way over. Around halfway, he caught Jisoo's eye and saw how there was an element of panic for a moment. Yet, he didn't try to run or leave, instead taking a few steps towards him to narrow the distance a little quicker.  
"Coups, I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry for being so harsh to you when my feelings were the problem, as opposed to your actions, and I'm sorry for dragging this out for long when it was all my fault. Could I ask for your forgiveness, please?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As an ending note, I'll get on to little apology fic snippets when I get back from work tomorrow; sorry for the lack of updates for the past few days but I've been stuck in the training course each day and falling asleep upon getting home since it's all pretty physically demanding and all. Tomorrow/today is the last day of it; there's an assessment in the afternoon and then hopefully I'll be coming home and writing up the second to last chapter for you all!!
> 
> On a separate note, when this and my other Seventeen fic are finished, there's a high chance that I'll be getting onto a "taboo love" themed series with all of the pairings that have been mentioned at some point in this fic, so it might be something to look forward to if you do ever find yourself wanting to read more, especially for these two since their one is 100% planned out at the moment
> 
> Thank you for staying with me all the way through this and for your comments as always; it's definitely helpful to know where certain bits lack clarity and all, especially with relatively short chapters and all!!


	25. Y for Yonderly

Their first year at university went a lot smoother than they had expected, given that Seungcheol was always busy and Jeonghan got a job.

For the most part, their arguments barely lasted for more than a few hours. Minghao's pep talk had given Seungcheol the strength to sort everything out quickly and deal with disagreements in a mature manner, and he had been proud of the fact that their relationship was running smoothly with those adjustments. After all, some conflict was inevitable, but it was how they dealt with it that was important.

In fact, the only big conflict they faced in their first year of university was when it hit summer. It was coming up to Seungcheol's birthday at the time, and whilst they were supposed to be meeting up on the day, there had been a huge change of plans around a fortnight beforehand. Jeonghan had been pushed to cover someone's shifts through his entire birthday week, and he had been absolutely distraught over being unable to make it back to Seoul.

The conflict was more to do with Jeonghan being unable to forgive himself more than anything. He had isolated himself a lot as a result, and he was very clearly upset about it leading up to the day. As much as Seungcheol tried to convince him that it wasn't a huge deal and could easily be sorted out, he still blamed himself a lot for being unable to attend. It was difficult for Seungcheol to see why, and honestly he was getting a bit frustrated with the situation, since he didn't want his boyfriend to be getting so worked up over something that didn't mean a huge amount to him.

He was glad to see that on the morning of his birthday, the conflict seemed to be resolved in Jeonghan's mind. He was woken up in the best way; a cheery phonecall from his boyfriend.  
"Hello birthday boy," Jeonghan's voice whispered, "How does it feel to be older?" Seungcheol felt his stresses washing away as he began to talk to his boyfriend about how he was feeling. It was more comforting than anything to be able to hear his voice on the other end, especially since he hadn't hear it in the few days leading up to that day. 

They chatted for around ten minutes before finally Jeonghan let out a soft sigh, and the older boy knew exactly what was coming next.  
"I'm really sorry, I have to go now but I'll call you after work, okay? I love you, Coups."  
That was that. The phone call cut off, and as much as Seungcheol had been fine with being alone until now, the loneliness had hit him hard when he heard the call cut off. It was a numb sort of feeling; nothing too intense, but rather dull and empty.

It had taken a lot of strength to pull himself out of bed that morning, but he had eventually managed to make it down to the kitchen to see a note on the side. A quick skim read told him that his parents were made to work too. The disappointment had continued growing to the point where he wasn't really feeling like he was in the mood to check out the presents that they had left for him. Instead, he turned his attention to his phone again in hopes that there would be at least a bit of good news.

He was relieved to find that he had been bombarded with birthday wishes when he checked his messages. His friends had made a point of not only sending texts, but also messages on social media and emails. Seungcheol instantly found himself smiling over it, and made sure to thank each of them in their group chat, before gathering up the courage to ask for the bit of company that would bring his mood up. "Is anyone available to come over today?"

"I think I'm the only one who isn't busy, so I can come over if you want," Jihoon offered almost immediately after the initial message was sent, "We were all going to come over and surprise you, but we'll see what we can do as a group this weekend instead, if that's okay?"  
Seungcheol felt as if his mood could no longer get any lower. Sure, he did really like Jihoon and was glad to be able to catch up with a friend, but at the same time it still felt lonely. They weren't the closest in the group and hadn't really spoken too much on their own so he was a bit concerned that conversation would run dry and it would be awkward between them, but on top of that he genuinely missed the whole group and would've liked to see more of them.

Nevertheless, he invited Jihoon over, and the younger boy turned up after around a half hour with the gifts that he and the rest of the group had bought him. "I'm guessing from the small pile over there that you're gonna want to open them later, huh?" he asked as he placed the packages with the other gifts, then made his way over to sit with Seungcheol on the sofa.

It was a relatively quiet morning, in which they ended up playing reruns of old comedy shows in hopes that it would lift Seuncheol's mood a bit. It worked most of the time, although he would periodically remember why he was feeling down and the laughter would turn back to empty smiles for a while.

During one of those periods, Seungcheol decided that it was time to try to pick himself up with familiarity again. "How is everyone at the moment?"  
"I think everyone's okay," Jihoon mused as he turned to face his friend, "Exam stress is over and universities are sorted."  
Seungcheol found himself making more conversation about the group's decisions for further study, and was surprised to find that Jihoon knew everything about everyone's plans. He went through details of where the seniors were attending, what they were studying and what day they were due to be leaving home.

He was just in the middle of discussing their plans for the leaving parties when he suddenly stopped mid sentence and stared hard at the window behind Seungcheol.  
"Do you see that? Those shadows over there are a bit close."

Seungcheol's head snapped towards where Jihoon was looking. It was still light outside but there was something about the fact that there were shadows right outside the house that left him uncomfortable. He took in a sharp breath and shuffled back into his seat. "I'll go and check on it," Jihoon announced, and whilst Seungcheol tried to stop him from going over, his friend had already made up his mind and flung the door open. There was a moment of silence when the younger boy poked his head out of the door and his senior sat in anticipation, hoping that nothing would happen.

"If someone's out there, you should show yourself." His height and the pitch of his voice meant that he didn't seem all too intimidating, but Seungcheol admired his confidence. He was expecting no answer at all and was relieved when Jihoon moved back into the house, but just as he went to close the door again after himself, Seungcheol heard him inhale hard and snapped back towards him.  
"Who are you?"

There was another tense moment of silence as Jihoon slowly took a step backwards with one hand tightly gripping the door, but after a few seconds of looking absolutely terrified, he broke into a laugh and moved to one side. "Come in, guys, I think we've scared him enough."

Seungcheol didn't even have time to react before his friends started to fill his house. First Hansol and Seungkwan, then Mingyu, Wonwoo, Chan, Jisoo, Seokmin, Soonyoung, and finally Minghao, Junhui and Jeonghan. He had been surprised to see that Junhui had come back from China to visit, but his attention was immediately snatched up when he saw his boyfriend coming in last, and he swore he could feel his chest getting tight as Jeonghan made a beeline straight over to hug him tightly before anyone else could get there first. There was something comforting about pressing his face into the skin of his neck as he inhaled the familiar smell of Jeonghan's soaps, leaving him completely stress free once again.

"I thought you were at work today," he mumbled, earning a soft laugh in response.  
"I'm sorry, I managed to get it freed up last night, but I knew that everyone else was planning on surprising you so I kept the change of plans quiet."

As much as he would've wanted to know that Jeonghan was available, he couldn't be annoyed by it when they were all together as a group again. He didn't even mind that he was starting to tear up and a few of the younger boys were teasing him over it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a bit of a softer chapter, seeing as we're almost done, and I'm still not 100% sure as to where the final chapter is going to take us. We're almost at the end now, thank you all for sticking with me with this, and hopefully it's been worth the read over time!! <3


	26. Z for Zizz

Admittedly, it had been Seungcheol's fault that their relationship had ultimately collapsed. He was too busy and had ultimately neglected their relationship when Jeonghan needed him the most. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, seeing as they broke up on mutual terms, but there was something innately painful about finishing a relationship with his first boyfriend when he was still in love with him.

He never did stop loving Jeonghan, even when they lost contact. He still had all of the photos they'd taken together in his room, and he still cuddled the first stuffed animal that his ex had bought him when he was feeling lonely.

It had happened in their second year of university, and frankly they had just drifted apart. Jeonghan swore that he was in love with him still as well, but it was just difficult for him to focus on his studies when he felt obliged to have an active part in their relationship too. Seungcheol wasn't really asking for him to work on it, seeing as he had wanted to focus on his university work too, but he could see why it would be stressful for Jeonghan to try and balance both when he wasn't doing the same.

There came a point where he would barely think about Jeonghan, even if the thoughts of the other boy were still hidden deep inside his mind. The thoughts of everything that they'd done together ranged between fond memories and painful recollections, and so he mostly just avoided thinking about their time together when he could do so.

The only problem, however, was that Seungcheol had stayed in contact with Jisoo. They had remained close, seeing as they had graduated together, and even when they got jobs and stopped being able to see each other regularly, they still spoke when they could. Yet, Jeonghan was an inevitable topic of conversation on multiple occasions, seeing as he and Jisoo were still best friends, so Seungcheol found himself unable to avoid hearing about his ex.

It was especially inevitable when they met in person. Jisoo had a habit of going to the same familiar places when they were out together, and unfortunately a lot of those places would be those that he'd been to with Jeonghan too. He would be brought up in conversation a lot at those places; he'd said something funny when they were sitting in the cafe, or he had been telling Jisoo a story about what their high school friends had been doing as they walked through the park.

Eventually, though, it was getting to be obvious that Jisoo had noticed his mood dropping whenever his best friend came up in conversation. "Coups, I know you two broke up, but I thought that it was mutual. Do you really hate me talking about him or something?" he finally asked during one of their outings, and Seungcheol simply gave a sigh.  
"We did break up on mutual terms, but we don't talk anymore."  
"Why's that?" The question came without missing a beat, and honestly it had caught Seungcheol off guard.

He could give a selection of excuses over why they hadn't spoken. They were busy; it wasn't normal to be friends with an ex; he knew that he'd be heartbroken if he found out that Jeonghan was happily in a relationship with someone else. None of them felt right, though, and he found himself just sitting in silence as Jisoo gave him a concerned look.  
"Do you miss him, Seungcheol?"

The question had thrown Seungcheol off guard. He didn't think it was possible to not miss Jeonghan, seeing as they were once very close. When he didn't think about him, everything was fine, but as soon as his mind flashed back to the beautiful boy, he was filled with a sadness. It was mostly during the lonely moments in the middle of the night when everyone else was asleep and he knew that by the morning the urge to message Jeonghan would be gone. Yet, there was no denying that he missed his ex to a considerable degree.

The silence had suggested that Jisoo had been correct, and he let out a little sigh.  
"Why don't you message him then?"  
"I don't want to be that annoying ex boyfriend who pops up out of the blue. He might not even want to talk to me anymore." Jisoo's eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out whether Seungcheol was serious or not.  
"Coups, I wouldn't have suggested it if Jeonghan didn't talk about you too. He misses you a lot, you know."

Seungcheol tried his hardest to come up with more excuses over how he's changed in personality and they might not click anymore, or how it'd be awkward to try to reconnect with an ex partner. His underlying fear was obvious in his words, though, and he knew that Jisoo could tell.  
"No more excuses, okay? You're coming to my house next Friday for a dinner party. There'll be my work colleagues and people from high school, including Jeonghan. I'm sitting you together, you're going to spend most of the party together, and I'm not letting either of you leave until you've at least exchanged phone numbers."

There was no room for argument once Jisoo had made up his mind. He quickly changed the topic of conversation so that Seungcheol couldn't try to convince him to change his mind, and they ended up parting ways without having brought it up again.

Seungcheol was frankly terrified leading up to it. He had tried to push it to the back of his mind all week, but as soon as Friday hit, he was unable to think of anything else. It took over his thoughts from the moment he woke up, all the way through his work day, and on the way home too.

The worst part of the situation was that a little piece of him wanted to scrub up and try hard to look attractive so that Jeonghan would be impressed when they met again. That same piece figured that even if Jeonghan was no longer attracted to him, at least it would make him feel a bit more confident too. He made sure to pick his best smart-casual clothing and ensuring that his overall appearance was perfect before leaving the house and making his way to Jisoo's place.

Everything was fine until he hit the front door. He had been hoping to keep his confidence for as much of the dinner party as possible, but it fell through before he even made it to the door. He felt it immediately drain away as he tried to build up the courage to knock on the door, just in case Jeonghan saw him before he'd even had the chance to mentally prepare himself to chat with him. It took a few minutes in the end, but a voice behind him stopped him just as his fist made contact with the door.

"Coups?"

Seungcheol span around on the spot to see a boy with a familiar face but unfamiliar blond hair. It was a lot shorter than he remembered, but still fell perfectly around his face. He remembered the clothing too; it included a grey jumper that Seungcheol had bought him as a gift at some point.  
"Jeonghan?"  
Jeonghan's lips twitched into a smile as he gave a slight nod. "I didn't think you'd remember me when so much has changed."  
"Just your hair," Seungcheol pointed out to him, "Other than that, you haven't changed in the past four years."

Jeonghan's smile only grew as his eyes moved down to the ground for just a second, but it reverted to the softer expression once he was looking back up at his ex again. "Should we go inside and continue this conversation in there?" he suggested, and Seungcheol immediately gave a nod before turning back to knock again. As expected, Jisoo had greeted them both with a grin as he realised that it wasn't awkward between them at all.

"You're welcome to go to my room and catch up if you'd like privacy," he suggested as he invited them both into the house, "Just let me know and I'll take you through." The hint wasn't even subtle, but they mutually agreed on the spot that they would let him know if it was necessary to have private space for their conversation.

It was surprising to Seungcheol how easily they managed to make conversation again. It was almost as if they'd never been apart, since the conversation came back to them so easily. They had ended up discussing a range of topics relating to their past four years apart, jumping from one topic to the next and making jokes here and there.

At some point during the conversation, Seungcheol felt his feelings come rushing back to him, and it was quite frankly the weirdest feeling he'd ever experienced. It wasn't anything that he'd experienced in a long time; it had hit hard how much he loved Jeonghan's smile, his eyes and hair and sense of style, the way his nose crinkled up a bit when he heard a cringy joke, and the slight flash of a tongue over lips whenever he looked at Seungcheol's mouth.

"Now, here's the real question that we've both been wanting to ask for this entire conversation," Jeonghan finally announced as he crossed one leg over the other and leant a bit closer towards Seungcheol. "Are we both single?"  
His stomach definitely flipped when he heard that question. The younger boy was absolutely correct with that one; he did really want to find that bit of information out, so he simply gave a nod for his own answer and waited for Jeonghan to confirm that it was mutual. The response was a warm smile, followed closely by a wary reach for one of his hands.  
"Does this mean I'm allowed to flirt with you, then? I'm sure there's no hard feelings over the fact that we haven't been dating for a while, are there?"

Seungcheol was quick to agree, and the conversation relaxed more than it had already been. Just as he had in high school, Jeonghan had opted for subtle flirting through physical contact, and it brought along a feeling of immediate comfort. The little hand touches and excuses to brush their knees together as they made conversation definitely added to it all in a positive way, and made the transition to more personal conversations a lot easier for them.

"I've missed you a lot, Coups. You don't even understand how much I've missed you. I regret calling for a break up because I'm almost certain that we would've been able to work through it."  
It hit home pretty hard. Seungcheol was well aware of the fact that he was probably an awful boyfriend at times for neglecting Jeonghan's needs, but simultaneously as time went on he had been more and more convinced that they could've managed just fine without cutting off their relationship completely. If anything, it could probably be said that their break up had been the cause of more stress than actually being together, especially after almost a year and a half of dating.

"I miss being your boyfriend," he admitted with an awkward smile, "I haven't had anyone else since because I know that they would just be a rebound if I wasn't fully over you yet." Jeonghan's expression went through a spectrum as he spoke, starting out with shock, then touching over shyness, nervousness, admiration, then finally flattery.

"I have to admit, I do think that we've clicked again pretty well now that we've been forced to meet. Maybe we can pick up again how we started the first time, if you're comfortable with that?"  
"Drunk and making out in Hansol's bedroom?" Jeonghan's smile turned into an embarrassed laugh as he pressed his face into his hands.  
"No, Coups, I told you last time that I'm never touching alcohol again, and I've kept my promise so far."

"What did you mean, then?" The younger boy simply rolled his eyes in response.  
"At a party, Coups. A party where we realise that there's so much that hasn't been said or done. Where we just kiss and agree to maybe go on a date or something. Where we might end up going back to my place to cuddle as we sleep."

It was probably a ridiculous idea, but Seungcheol found himself quickly agreeing to it regardless. "Should we disappear to somewhere quiet for a moment to get that started whilst we're still waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive? Just a quick kiss to make sure that we're still compatible?"  
Probably an even worse idea. Of course, he agreed to that as well, and so they both stood and made their way to the empty hallway between the bathroom and Jisoo's bedroom, before turning to face each other again.

"It's strange, isn't it?" Jeonghan breathed as they moved back towards each other slightly, "We've kissed so many times in the past, but only now am I feeling nervous. Maybe I do need a drink in me." It was a joke, but honestly it was something that the older boy could relate to. It took a great deal of strength to be able to close the distance between them both for the first time in four years, and as nervous as he was, it was amazing to be able to feel that little tingle running up his spine again.

It was like kissing Jeonghan for the first time. It was soft and sweet, and he could feel Jeonghan's lips smiling against his own. It took barely any time at all for them to comfortably slip back into more passionate kisses, but they eventually pulled away for breath and pressed their foreheads together. Jeonghan let out an exasperated laugh as he wrapped his arms around Seungcheol, whilst the older boy touched a hand to his cheek.

"We probably shouldn't be gone for long, should we? Wouldn't want Jisoo getting concerned about where we are." Seungcheol gave a little nod and dared to slip his hand into Jeonghan's as he led him back to the main party.

It was strange to him how easily they managed to slip back into comfortably flirting and intimacy despite having not spoken all too much. From the way that the dinner party went, he was certain that they would be able to patch up everything that they'd left behind during university, and he was more than excited to be going back with Jeonghan later that evening.

LGBT didn't used to mean anything to him, but now it was an important part of him. As much as he could've denied it, loving Jeonghan had drawn it out of him and introduced him to a new world of openness, and honestly he was glad to be getting back the love that pulled him out of his shell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's to the end of this fanfic!!
> 
> If anyone is into hearing a bit more from this one, I promised a write up of the university dorm smut, so I should get that all written up over the next few days and submitted. It won't follow the usual 1500 word chapters as these have (other than this chapter), but it'll be dorky and cute hopefully and we can see how it'll go~
> 
> There'll be some more soon with these two, on the theme of weddings vs taboo love, but I'll leave you all guessing about that one.
> 
> Thank you all for staying with me with this, and hopefully this chapter will be a good close to the fanfic <3


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